


Rotten to the Core (for a little bit more)

by thebench2008



Category: Descendants (Disney Movies)
Genre: F/F, Multi, this is just lots of stories full of the core four being cinnamon roll friends, with mal/evie together, you could basically read in carlos/jay as well even though it's not expressly written that way
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-12
Updated: 2018-07-30
Packaged: 2019-02-14 00:59:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 28,953
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12996393
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thebench2008/pseuds/thebench2008
Summary: Basically just a story of one shots based around certain situations/life events of the villain kids. Set both on the Isle and Auradon. It's a little more cheekier and mischievous than the movie - here, it takes them a lot longer to accept 'goodness.' They're hardened and rough villains (who just want to love and protect each other forever) and they're not willing to let their guard down at any cost. Besides, who wants to play nice when being rotten is so much fun?





	1. Food

There were a lot of things that the villain kids had learnt to go without on the Isle. A bed, basic health care, adoration and validation from the people who were meant to love you more than anything else in the world (they’re not bitter at all). 

Then there was food. 

Oh, the Isle had food, for sure. Technically rotten garbage is still defined as food. Shops all around the Isle boasted their best ‘filth cabbage’ or ‘shellfish scum’ for Isle-standards exorbitant prices as if it was a banquet fit for the royal family in Auradon. 

You learn not to be picky if you want to live. 

With high prices, parents unwilling to feed them, and some food being so bad it’s not even worth eating unless you’re prepared to be plagued with sickness, yeah, the villain kids definitely knew what it felt like to go without.

Because food was such a rarity, they had to be smart. On the miracle days that they had scrounged up money for a meal (Mal’s reputation and Jay’s thieving hands were a great team), or had managed to connive food from some unfortunate soul, they had a system. 

Food was first given to Jay and Evie. Jay needed the food so he could keep his muscle mass. They could all fight, make no mistake. Mal was vicious, Carlos nimble and Evie had deadly aim. But it’s hard to make threats and keep your territory without someone by your side who at first glance looks like they could crush you.

Evie was fed next because her mother sure as hell wasn’t going to let her eat in her sight. The Evil Queen’s beauty standards got harsher by the day, and even when Evie was at her skinniest, it was never good enough. Mal, Jay and Carlos not only had to deal with the physical act of getting Evie food, but also the mental and emotional side of Evie not wanting to eat for fear of getting fat. 

(It would be a downright miracle if any of the villain kids got fat, or even to a healthy body size).

Carlos and Mal went without at first. Carlos (because of his small body size and slow growth rate) didn’t feel hunger as much as the likes of Jay. Mal (because she was stubborn and the leader of their group) made sure everyone else was fed before her. 

If food wasn’t found, Mal would have to pull out all the tricks in the book to try and get the smallest meagre of food available. Sometimes they had a feast, sometimes it was days where they saw nothing. (When their parents still managed to wield control over one of them and the others couldn’t intervene in time, it was more like a week without food). It was a statement to the lack of available food on the Isle that even with their formidable reputation and territory, the four could still struggle through the hard days of empty stomachs.

—————

If the villain kids were being honest, food was the last thing on their minds when they stood in Maleficent’s home, hearing her bark orders at them. It was the last thing on their minds when they all fell into the limousine, feeling surprise and a strange sense of comfort against the soft seats. It was the last thing on their minds as they heard their parents call out to the moving car, one last reminder of the only things they cared about.

It soon became the first thing on their minds when Carlos spotted jars upon jars of chocolate and candy. Jay and Evie’s eyes soon followed his, and before they all fought each other for it, they cast a glance at Mal. Mal quickly weighed it up in her mind, figuring it was safe to eat if this was the car the royal family drove in. She allowed herself to smile at their indulgence and delight at the new textures and flavours they were experiencing. She watched them for a while before allowing herself to try some, losing her mind a little when the sweet chocolate hit her tongue. 

After they were convinced they weren’t going to die on the crossing to Auradon, and after she had succeeded in her role of separating the driver from their view, she nodded at the other three to the food.

“We don’t know what it’s going to be like there. This could be a rarity, and not one I’m willing to give up.” She said as she emptied a packet of sweets into her pocket.

The others quickly joined suit, Evie placing a few bowls into her red bag, the boys shoving as much as they could into their mouths and pockets at the same time.

The Isle might have been retreating in the distance, but the villain kids refused to let their guard down.

—————

The villain kids arrived to Auradon Prep in the morning, and although Ben had checked with Doug that he showed them the dining hall, they didn’t turn up for lunch. Figuring they were still settling into their dorms, he didn’t check on them until close to dinner time, to make sure they knew where the dining hall was.

There were a few reasons the villain kids didn’t turn up for lunch. One, they weren’t about to let themselves out into a crowd of students who looked at them with mixtures of disgust and horror. Two, they didn’t know their way around yet, and the lack of known escape routes meant staying in the dorms was the safest option. Three, Carlos and Jay couldn’t move.

The two boys lay on the floor of their room, groaning and holding their stomachs. When they first arrived, Mal magicked her and Evie’s room and they shot off to the boys room soon after, doing the same. Within two minutes of them being there, Carlos said he felt sick, and Jay soon after. None of them could identify the problem, just that it was their stomach. 

Horrified for a few moments, they all wondered whether Auradon had brought them over just to get rid of them. They wracked their brains for what they had done or touched that could have caused it. When Mal leant down to check on Carlos, some candy fell out of her pocket. 

“Poison!” Evie cried, tipping her bag clean of the candy and chocolate onto the ground as well.

“No wonder it was so tempting.” Jay groaned.

Mal wanted to throw up. They had allowed themselves this indulgence and now they were paying for it. In her mind she flipped through her options before a stroke of logic hit her.

“Wait, wait, don’t panic. We all ate the food right?” Everyone nodded in confirmation. “So why aren’t Evie and I also feeling pain?”

Evie tilted her head, thinking. “No poison?”

“No poison. They just ate too much too fast. When was the last time we ate that much food at once?”

Carlos shook his head. “We’ve never.”

“Exactly.” Mal replied. “Look, the car was fine because it was just us. We can’t eat like that in front of others. I’m inclined to say we don’t eat at all in front of others yet. We can’t let them know this is a weakness.”

A grimace formed on all the kids as they nodded their agreement. No weakness.

“Besides,” Mal picked up the wrapped candy on the floor. “This will keep us going for weeks. Let’s hide it just to be safe.”

—————

Ben knocked on the door of Mal and Evie’s room close to dinner time. He could have sworn he got a shock through his hand when he touched the door knob. There was no reply, and he tried not to worry, feeling ashamed his immediate thought was that they had escaped.

He continued down a floor to Carlos and Jay’s room. His knock was answered this time by Mal, who opened the door a fraction for a split second, then further once she realised who it was. Ben could see Evie, Jay and Carlos all in the room on the same bed. When he thought he had been staring for too long, he threw his glance back to Mal who was now looking at him with an eyebrow raised, arms crossed. 

Realising Mal wasn’t going to start the conversation, he wrung his hands together and tried to muster the confidence of a future king. 

“We didn’t see you at lunch today - which is totally fine! But I wanted to make sure you knew where the dining hall was, and that dinner will be available very soon.”

“Oh, we know.”

Ben was thrown by Mal’s quick and blunt reply. “Uh, great! Awesome. It smells really good tonight, the kitchen is right by the hall and I smelt it wafting through as I walked past.”

“That is beyond exciting.”

Ben laughed for a second, like Mal had made a joke, but her gaze was still intently in place, and her arms still very much crossed. “Ha…So did you, um, want to come down for dinner?”

Mal’s eyes scrunched up with her shoulders shrugged in her signature ‘I’m-done-talking farewell.’ “Nope!”

The villain kids let out smirks at Ben’s shocked and disappearing face as Mal closed the door on it after she declined the dinner invitation. They all realised they had gathered the most important information they needed to survive here anyway - the location of the kitchen.

“Well, that was riveting.” Mal said as she sat down on a chair. “We’ll raid the kitchen later. Now, let’s find this damn wand.”

—————

“Ok, straight in and straight out.” Mal whispered as they snuck into the kitchen after their failed attempt at stealing the wand.

Jay still looked embarrassed that he had ruined it for them, and instead of leading the break in like usual, he hung back with Mal.

Not wanting to waste time on something that she wasn’t willing to hold against him, Mal pushed his shoulder until he looked at her. 

“Hey, it’s done. We’ll try again. Find us something good to make up for it.”

Jay smirked and set off, scouring through all the cupboards. Carlos had already gotten his hands full of food and was trying to balance more. Evie turned up next to him with some baskets that he dropped everything into. 

“Anything and everything guys.” Mal said, as she took in all the food in front of them with wonder. 

“Just no apples.”

“Got it E.”

Jay walked up to the basket with more food, placing it in before coming to stand next to Mal and look as well. “People are starving on the Isle. And here -”

“They’ve got so much food it’ll go to waste.” Mal finished for him, speaking darkly. “Yeah. Welcome to Auradon.”

“For the Isle, huh?” Carlos said, struggling to hold up the huge baskets of food they had as an offering.

The others smirked. Rotten to the core alright.

—————

Ben didn’t see the villain kids at breakfast either, but there was a new reason for that. With most of the action happening on the Isle after dark, the villain kids were used to a late night turned early morning bed time. It was safer to be awake during most of the night and guard yourselves than to be vulnerable sleeping when evil came out to play. 

That also meant that early mornings were not a concept on the Isle, and definitely not in the villain kids’ vocabulary. They slept right through breakfast and if it wasn’t for the fact that their timetable still had to be configured based on their abilities, they would have missed their first two classes of the day as well.

Mal woke up at 10am, the sound of students in the hallway and outside for first break of the day pulling her out of slumber. She felt heavier as she lay in her bed, her stomach not being used to the amount of food they had consumed the previous night. It was by no means a feast - they had to conserve their food if they wanted it to last - but compared to the little or nothing they were used to on the Isle, it was everything. 

She would have gotten up, had it not been for the fact that Evie’s head was resting on her chest, with her arm pulled across her waist. Content to not be anywhere but there, with the added bonus that for the time being, the dorm rooms at Auradon presented no live threat, Mal gently raked her hands through Evie’s hair.

A while later, their dorm room opened and Carlos and Jay walked in. Mal’s magic on the door and Carlos and Jay’s door meant that no one could come in or out apart from the four of them. It also eliminated the need for keys and other security. 

Mal put a finger to her lips to indicate that Evie was still asleep. The boys nodded, but when Carlos pulled a few bits of food from his bag Mal’s stomach grumbled, and Evie stirred slightly. 

Evie made an incoherent sound, slightly picking up her head from Mal’s chest.

“Morning Princess.” Mal said, laughing at Evie’s half asleep fuck-off smirk she gave her. “It’s breakfast time.”

Jay split the food evenly. Their system from the Isle could be spared for the time being considering the amount of food they stole last night. He took a bite of bread and sat back in the chair, sighing contentedly. 

“When we get the wand we gotta take as much food as we can carry back to the Isle.”

Mal agreed, taking the food Carlos handed her for her and Evie. “Imagine the bargaining power we’d have with this stuff. Not only is there no mould in sight, it also tastes half decent.”

“I don’t even know what half of this is, but it’s amazing.” Carlos said with pleasure as he bit into a giant croissant. 

Evie and Mal, now sitting up in the bed, surveyed the food before them. Evie studied it for a while before reaching down to take the smallest item - a few grapes. Mal stopped her and instead grabbed an identical croissant to Carlos’s, putting it in Evie’s hand. 

Evie looked like she might protest but one stare from Mal closed her mouth.

“Eves it’s so delicious, I’ve never tasted anything like it.” Carlos said, trying to prevent an encounter of ‘make Evie eat’ so early in the day. 

“Yeah come on Evie.” Jay bit into a muffin, holding it up. “For the Isle, remember?”

After another look at Mal, Evie eventually nodded, and her moan of delight flooded through the room when she began eating.

Mal smirked and held a muffin, pleased with their situation. “For all the hard work we’ve got in front of us, this is what we deserve. We’ll get the wand, but why should our dearest Mommies and Daddies know how enjoyable it was in the process?”

—————

Eventually, the villain kids sauntered down the hall towards a class that was on the same floor they were. Once Mal and Evie had remembered where they dumped the ‘Welcome to Auradon Prep!’ bag they were given yesterday which contained their timetables, they could leave. They could have been on time to the 11am class, but they took the opportunity for mischief (no matter the scale) any chance they got and walked into Remedial Goodness five minutes late.

This had the intended effect of flustering the Fairy Godmother, who was standing at the front of the class with her hands together, Ben beside her. She didn’t say anything as the villain kids walked up the classroom, but made a noise of displeasure when they stopped only three rows in, unceremoniously dumping their bags and themselves in the chairs. 

Clearly thinking they were going to sit at the desks all the way up the front, the Fairy Godmother took a few steps down from the platform at the front, in order to be closer to the students she would be addressing.

“Welcome to your first class, students. Although I am glad you made it, we do have very strict pride in punctuality, and in the future I trust we will endeavour to fulfil this requirement.”

Mal smirked at the word ‘trust.’ There was her first mistake, trusting them with anything above protecting and loving each other. She put on a voice the others immediately recognised as innocently antagonising. “It’s just such a big school, it was a long walk. And so easy to get lost.”

Ben tilted his head in confusion, knowing this class was on the same level as Mal and Evie’s room. The villain kids waited for him to say something and it looked like he might, until the Fairy Godmother started speaking again. 

“Yes very well I can understand that.”

The Fairy Godmother took another breath in, and Carlos saw an opportunity. 

“Why is he here?” He nodded his head at Ben. “Is he in need of Remedial Goodness as well?”

The other villain kids tried and mostly failed to cover up their smirks and bursts of laughter. Both Ben and the Fairy Godmother were further flustered by this, and the villain kids - knowing how to read a room - knew that whatever was happening, they were winning.

“Prince Ben does not, in fact need remedial goodness children. He is here because he has informed me, out of the kindness in his heart, of his concern that none of you have shown up to the past three meals.”

Ah, so she finally cut to it. All villain kids seemed to move as one, leaning back in their chairs, eyebrows raised, waiting for her to continue. The Fairy Godmother clearly expected a response, and when Mal crossed her arms, she knew she wasn’t going to get one. 

“Right. Further, the cook has informed me this morning that a large amount of food appears to have been taken from the kitchens since dinner last night. Putting two and two together, I can’t help but wonder…” She trailed off, leaving the kids staring.

Mal leaned over to Evie, whispering dead silent in her ear, “They’ve got all that food and they can still tell when some is gone? What do they do, have fairies count each bread roll?”

Evie stifled a laugh, and the Fairy Godmother looked over at Mal.

“Would you care to share that, dear?”

Mal recrossed her arms, not bothering to sit up. “I was just telling Evie here that it’s a shame somewhere like Auradon Prep has such judgmental leadership.”

The Fairy Godmother and Ben both made noises of protests, not expecting that response at all. Mal charged on, not wanting them to take control of the conversation.

“I mean, the future King and the headmistress of the school that is educating Auradon’s children automatically assume that because food is apparently missing, it must be the villain’s faults? Is that what you really think of us? Willing to cast blame with no evidence? Do we not deserve a clean slate, separated from our parent’s actions? I really expected more from ‘Auradon’s finest’.”

Jay let out a low whistle of appreciation. Game, set, match Mal.

The room had descended into silence, smirks on one end, flabbergasted expressions on the other. In no hurry to end the time wasting, the villain kids waited for a response from the front of the room. After a while, the Fairy Godmother seemed to pull herself together, and cleared her throat.

“Of…of course we don’t think that of you dears. And you’re very right. It would be wrong for us to assume that of you.”

“Which is what you did.”

Ben nodded, scratching the back of his head. “It is Mal, and we are sorry. To all of you.”  
All four faces on the villain’s kids light up into amused smirks. Saying ‘sorry?’ This place was softer than they imagined.

The Fairy Godmother ploughed on, trying to save whatever lesson they were teaching out of this. “It would just be awful for us if you were too frightened or unsure to eat with all the other students. And we don’t want you to starve. We want you to feel comfortable.”

“Well you shouldn’t have trapped us on an island for 16 years.” Carlos whispered to Jay who agreed. 

“Oh there are frightened students here, but they’re not us.” Mal said. 

With no further response, Ben clapped his hands together. “Well, I should get to class. Sorry, again, really.” He said in earnest to the villain kids, who just stared back at him. “Fairy Godmother.” 

“Ben.” Fairy Godmother responded to the farewell. She then checked the clock. “Goodness, time flies when you’re having fun, doesn’t it?”

The villain kids continued to stare, Mal raising an eyebrow. 

“Right,” Fair Godmother said hastily. “Let’s get on with the lesson.”

—————

After an uneventful lesson (the kids are sure Fairy Godmother felt like she was pulling teeth getting them to interact) they made their way out of the class, heading down a level to Carlos and Jay’s room to get some lunch. 

They passed through the lobby on the way through when they saw two of their least favourite classmates by the door outside.

Audrey was standing with Chad, who was holding the biggest plate of stacked donuts the villain kids had ever seen. (It was technically the only donuts the villain kids had ever seen). She was pulling a face, and one by one inspecting the donuts, for reasons the villain kids could not figure out.

“Ew, gross.” She would say as she looked one over, then tossed it in the trash beside her.

The villain kids’ eyes widened in both shock and anger. They watched her do this with a few more donuts, all perfectly good looking donuts, then stormed off to the boys’ room.

“That prissy little bitch!” Mal yelled as soon as the door closed. 

Carlos fell back onto his bed, shaking his head in disbelief. “They berate us for stealing, and their own royal jerks waste food by the minute.”

“Whatever those things were they looked delicious. And they would have caused a god damned fight to the death if we were back on the Isle.” Jay said, sitting next to Carlos.

Mal fumed. “How many times have we gone without? How many times have we eaten literal garbage just to survive? And she what? Throws out a perfectly good whatever-it-was just because she doesn’t like the look of it?”

“How many Isle kids in our territory would have enjoyed those? The ones with the pink icing and the little colourful specks on top reminded me so much of Dizzy.” 

Mal smiled slightly at Evie’s words, and took her hand. “Well then, seems like we’ve got one more statement to make on behalf of the Isle, huh? Time to teach little miss precious not to be so damn ungrateful.”

—————

The next morning the four villain kids stepped outside Carlos and Jay’s room to hear a heated conversation flowing down the hallway. They excitedly looked at each other, and in stark contrast to their pace yesterday, moved down the hall quickly to watch the scene unfold from the top of the stairs.

Sitting outside Audrey’s room was a basket from the kitchen identical to the one they stole the night before, filled with the same food missing (all thanks to Mal’s spell book). They all pressed together in solidarity as they bit their lips to stop from laughing, watching their tiny but powerful act of revenge play out. As Audrey spluttered out a reason to the Fairy Godmother as to why it wasn’t her who stole the food and that she’d been set up, her eye caught the four kids at the top of the stairs.

Mal scrunched her eyes and shoulders, holding her hand up and giving her a full fingered wave. Audrey’s eyes widened with knowledge and anger, but before she could attract everyone watching the scene and Fairy Godmother’s attention to them, the kids had disappeared, sliding back into the safety of the hallway.

Villain kids - 1. Auradon Prep - 0.


	2. Touch

If Fairy Godmother had to choose the single most surprising thing about her newest students, it wouldn’t be that they were stand-offish, or that they talked back. It wouldn’t be that they were late to class and had a general disregard for the rules, or that they guarded food and property like every person who walked past was going to attack them for it. It wouldn’t be that Evie was far too thin for a girl her age, and that Carlos was far too small. It wouldn’t be that Mal and Jay walked around with curled fists, looking for threats, or that all four wouldn’t sit in a room unless they were by the closest escape path.

All of those traits she uncomfortably knew deep down were a result of their hardened upbringing on the Isle. They may have been a little more severe than she was expecting, but it wasn’t a shock to see them there.

No, the single most surprising thing about Mal, Evie, Jay and Carlos was the way they interacted with each other. More specifically, their physical closeness. 

  
Fairy Godmother had always presumed that because of the nature of villains, their children would also steer as far away as possible from anyone touching them, even in the slightest way. To an extent, she wasn’t wrong. There had been countless occasions in the first weeks of them being at Auradon Prep where she either had to personally deal or overhear of incidents where a student had touched one of the four, and had definitely paid the price. 

But with each other? It was a completely different story.

Instead of tensing and then either taking down the person who touched them or escaping the situation as silently and quickly as possible, the four welcomed each other’s touches. 

Jay’s strong arm was a constant presence around any one of their shoulders. Fairy Godmother would be hard pressed to think of a time where she hadn’t seen Evie and Mal holding hands. Carlos was never far from any of them, particularly fond of gripping the backs or sleeves of any of their shirts during tense confrontations in the hallways, or with unfavourable teachers. Mal, always the leader of the group, would often subtly reach a hand out behind her, comforted by the feel of any of their squeezes of reassurance. Almost as if to remind each other they were there and they were safe.

The four moved as one, they did everything together. They were like magnets - one moved and the rest seamlessly followed, even if it appeared they weren’t paying attention. 

  
They glided through halls like water, avoiding crowds and interactions with practiced ease. If the buzz around their being at Auradon Prep wasn’t so big as to make them known to every student, they would have been almost invisible.

Fairy Godmother had Ben, Audrey and Doug report back to her after the four new students had been there a few days. They had still not been seen eating in the dining hall. Doug had said that all four looked incredibly uncomfortable and surprised when he showed them to their separate dorm rooms - they had clearly expected to be sleeping in the same space. Doug also mentioned they were constantly in each others rooms, sometimes staying overnight as well. 

At this, Fairy Godmother had to remind Doug that she had not instructed him to spy or stalk them, but just ensure if he happened to pass them in the halls to see if they were doing fine. She gave a pointed look to Ben who nodded and understood - keep Doug in check. 

Audrey seemed entirely uninterested in their fitting in, only pointing out the weird traits they held. Such traits included walking in the same formation everywhere (Mal in front, Jay at the back, Carlos and Evie in the middle), not owning cellphones, never holding a map or asking for directions but somehow always knowing where to go, and never using keys even though their doors were always locked. Fairy Godmother didn’t want to know why Audrey had attempted to open their doors, so decided to just ignore that last one. 

Ben brought up the fact they all wore long sleeves, pants and jackets everywhere even though it was spring nearing summer. He didn’t elaborate further on the point, but Fairy Godmother knew what he was implying. She too would be entirely unsurprised if the sight of their bare arms and legs bore stories of the Isle, either through the abuse she had no doubt the treacherous villains of their past had inflicted, or through the rough and ready life she had heard came with the Isle.

She was glad Ben kept his comment brief on that. She didn’t want the rumour to spread to other students - the blessed life they lived would never allow them to fully understand the conditions one must go through to survive abuse. She knew Ben only made the connection because of the vigorous study he did about the Isle before the four arrived. Any kind of medical examination or check up was out of the question - just seeing the way they responded to any kind of unwanted interaction meant it would only serve to push them away more. She would just have to remain keeping a close eye on them.

She saw the way the four watched each other, how they appeared to know what every twitch, nod and curl of the lip meant on each of them. How the others backed down when Mal moved her body a certain way. How they tensed when Jay’s head tilted ever so slightly to the side. How they crowded around each other when Carlos’ eyes kept scanning their surroundings, his fingers tapping together. How they held barely there smirks when Evie’s hands rested at her hips, raised eyebrow and deep gaze penetrating which ever Auradon student looked their way for too long.

She noticed all of these traits, but she knew she would never understand them. She would never know how they came to be so close, and how they had learnt to read each other so well. Just as with everyone else at Auradon Prep, the four students seemed disinterested in what Fairy Godmother had to say, and had never even remotely appeared to consider opening up to her when she had inquired. 

—————

Fairy Godmother wasn’t a frequent attendant at the sports field after school. However, the tourney coach had burst into her office the day before raving about a new student on his team and how she had to explain where she found this talent. It appeared after almost two weeks of inviting, Jay had finally taken up her offer to play. She wasn’t sure why he had suddenly decided to attend, but didn’t want to dwell on it. Hoping this would show her the first positive sign of the new students fitting in, she decided to venture to the field after school, making her way to the seats at the front of the bleachers where the coach sat. 

She saw many faces on the field and in the stands on her way. The tourney team and the cheer team were both practicing on the pitch. The stands were scattered with various students, some gathered to do homework, some enjoying the sun, and others watching the practices. Mal, Evie and Carlos were sitting right on the side of the bleachers, towards the bottom. They had relaxed postures but their eyes told a different story. They were staring intently at the field, mostly on Jay’s movements. Fairy Godmother once again took note of their closeness - Carlos was leaning almost completely into Evie’s side, his head resting on her shoulder. Evie maintained her perfect posture, (Fairy Godmother was convinced she had never seen the girl lean or slouch once) and her left hand was clasped in Mal’s right, resting on Mal’s lap. 

Just as Fairy Godmother began to think she had stared at them for too long, Mal’s eyes flicked to hers and instantly formed into a calculating stare. Fairy Godmother swore Mal’s mouth barely moved before Carlos and Evie’s eyes were on her too, and she quickly looked away, making her way to the coaches seats. 

She had to admit, Jay was very talented. Once she got past his aggressiveness, she grew quite excited at the potential this would bring Jay to form bonds at the school. The coach next to her was likewise excited, although more for the potential that this would bring his team.

“What did I say, right? Raw talent. I just need to show the kid the rule book and he’ll be taking us to champs in no time.” The coach said to Fairy Godmother excitedly.

“Yes, I quite agree. And especially about the rule book. I would hate for anyone to get hurt.”

“Well, if you ask me, most of the team could use a little roughing up. Raised too soft here.” The coach laughed, staring back to the field. 

Kids should be raised soft, Fairy Godmother thought to herself, though she didn’t want to admit that she was part of the reason the kids on the Isle had to be raised rough. She watched as the team ran through drills, and saw how Jay moved around obstacles and people with balanced precision, as if he touched any of them they would attack him. She also saw him shooting as many glances to the stands where Mal, Evie and Carlos sat. Every time he did, at least one of the three would raise their fingers at him in the tiniest of waves, a signal for both that they were there, and attentive. 

Before she could ponder too much on it, the coach next to her blew his whistle loudly, startling her in her seat. He stood up with the manager, and shouted out some positions for the team to take.

“Ben, Jay - you two take offense. Chad - defence.”

Chad was disgruntled about this position, and shouted back about how he was always offense with Ben. The coach just blew his whistle again, not hearing a word of it. He got everyone into position, and the practice game began.

Jay absolutely dominated the field. He crushed everyone in his way, even those on his own team. He leapt through the air, pushed, shoved, tackled and shot. It was impressive and terrifying all at once.

Fairy Godmother flinched every time Jay collided with another student. She once again looked to her left, and saw Mal, Evie and Carlos watching the field intently, only this time with proud smirks on their face, a burst of laughter coming out of their mouths every time Jay crushed another opponent.

Well…at least they were having fun? Fair Godmother thought, trying to spin a positive on the violence. 

When the game had ended, the coach had called the team to the side of the field just by the seats for a water break. Fairy Godmother took a pause from watching, and when she did, saw Jane and Doug leaving the bleachers and heading back to the school.

“Jane!”

Jane turned at her mother's voice, smiling and heading over with Doug. “Hey, Mom.”

“Hi, Fairy Godmother.” Doug said, trumpet in hand.

“Hello, Doug. I was meaning to catch up with the both of you to ask how clubs week was going.”

Fairy Godmother had started listening with her undivided attention to their answers, but she noticed both of them were speaking slower and slower, not looking directly at her, but looking to what was going on behind her. She tuned them out to focus in on what she could hear, and it wasn’t good.

“Welcome to the team? What do you mean, welcome to the team?” Chad spluttered out to the coach, right after he had named Jay as part of the squad during the water break.

“I’m sorry?” The coach said to Chad, looking at him incredulously. “He’s one of the best players that has ever run on this pitch.”

“He’s also from the Isle! And you’re about to give him free reign to multiple sticks, canons and shields that he’ll do who knows what with. Actually, we do know what. He’ll go out and injure everyone in his way, as we’ve just seen.” Chad spat, rubbing his shoulder from where Jay took him down before.

“You got a problem?” Jay said, throwing down his stick and shield and turning to face Chad.

By this point, Fairy Godmother had turned around to watch the scene with Jane and Doug. When she saw Jay react in such a way, she quickly made her way over. She also saw out of the corner of her eye that Mal, Evie and Carlos were already on their feet and descending the bleachers quickly. 

“And what if I do? Ben invited you villains here, but that doesn’t mean we have to sit here and let you take over the place right before our very eyes. You don’t belong on this team, and you don’t belong here.” Chad said back to Jay, fairly confidently for someone who had been so easily taken down before.

Everyone made some kind of reactionary sound to that, whether it was of surprise, anticipation or agreement. 

“Chad, that’s enough. Lay off.” Ben said, trying to step in before it escalated.

“It would be wise to listen to your team mate, Chad. I don’t want to hear another negative word leave your mouth.” The coach added, in a warning tone. He went to clap his hand on Jay’s shoulder in a movement of solidarity but Jay saw his hand move near him, and quickly side stepped out of the way.

Curse my little legs, Fairy Godmother thought as she tried her darnedest to get over to the group before anything else occurred.

Jay took a step back, not keen on any hands being laid on him, and heard movements behind him. He turned, and felt comforted at the sight of his friends coming to his side, as he turned back to Chad. He saw Mal stop beside him, and he put out his hand to tell Evie to stay behind him, and knew Mal did the same to Carlos.

“No, I’d love to hear how this continues.” Mal said, crossing her arms with a raised eyebrow, staring at Chad.

Before anyone could respond, Fairy Godmother finally reached everyone, and most of the students took a step back in her presence. “Ok, students. Who wants to tell me what is going on.” She said with a strained smile, looking around at the different faces.

The villain kids ignored her, all of their eyes still harshly trained on Chad.

“You were saying about us being villains?” Evie shot out at Chad, crossing her arms too when Chad scoffed at her.

“Don’t speak to me you floozy.”

That was the second statement of Chad’s that had a verbal reaction from everyone, although this time it was intensified because the responses of the villain kids were added to the mix, and their choice of swear words and yells stood out quite easily in the Auradon crowd.

Being called a ‘floozy’ was probably the tamest insult any of them had heard about Evie, but that was comparing it to Isle standards. Here in Auradon, Chad’s use of the word might as well have been the worst of the worst.

“Don’t ever speak to her like that. Actually, don’t ever speak to her at all.” Mal said, her eyes on the verge of glowing green. She subtly moved her hand back, letting Carlos grip the sleeve of the jacket as he looked at all of their faces, watching to see what would happen.

“Children, please. I’ve asked a question.” Fairy Godmother said again, only to be ignored, again.

“I heard what you said about Evie yesterday after she rejected your advance. Do I need to come to practice tomorrow as well and make you pay again for how you’ve treated her just now? I can make the other shoulder hurt just as much, give you a matching pair.” Jay threatened.

Chad balked at that. “So you are here just to hurt people! I told you he was dangerous.”

“Alright, that is quite enough!” Fairy Godmother asserted, raising her voice. She turned to Chad. “Chad, you’ve said some horrible things. I want to see you in my office first thing tomorrow. And as for the four of you - ”

She cut herself off as she turned to look at the villain kids, only to see them a distance away, walking back to the school quickly. Evie and Mal were once again holding hands, and Jay had his arm slung across Carlos’ shoulders. She didn’t know when they slipped away and how they got so far so quickly, and could only stare at them in wonder. 

Beside her Ben sighed, shaking his head as he walked away when the coach dismissed them early for the day.

“I’m not wrong!” Chad called out to everyone as they went their separate ways, hands in the air.

—————

The next morning started for the villain kids same as usual; Mal and Carlos were the first to wake. Mal was used to early morning calls from her mother banging around her house, anger filled yells and slams making sleeping-in a far away dream. Over the years, Carlos had had to force himself to become a morning person. The result of him not having the house tidy or Cruella’s furs in line meant punishment he would definitely rather avoid. 

They made eye contact across the room as they both saw they had woken up, giving each other a sleepy smile in greeting. Mal was lying in a familiar position with Evie’s head resting in her neck on Jay’s bed, Carlos was laying sideways on his bed, his legs having somehow come up to rest across Jay’s body in their sleep. Despite their cautions about being in a new and still unfamiliar place like Auradon, the two were happy to finally have quiet mornings where they could just be. 

Particularly after the altercation on the tourney field yesterday, they found comfort in the fact that they could see each other, but most of all that they could feel each other’s presence. Sleep was a rare event when the Isle was running wild (which was quite often), but it always came easy when they had each other to ground them. It was no different here, and they knew they needed each other now more than ever.

Since Jay and Evie could sleep through the actual world ending, it was up to Mal and Carlos to decide when to get everyone up and moving for the day. This often took a lot of self will, something both were quite happy to give up against when laying so comfortably. Mal’s hand had found it’s usual position gently moving through Evie’s hair, and Carlos had his hand resting on Jay’s warm chest, letting it rise and fall with his breathing. 

Mal usually judged when to get up based on how long Evie would want to get ready. Waking Evie up was a slow (but very cute) process. Mal had learnt if she twisted her body away, Evie’s head would start to slide off her neck. This would result in a frown appearing on the sleeping girls face, as she grabbed at Mal, clinging on her so she would stay put. Mal would then brush her thumb gently across Evie’s forehead, creasing out the frown she held. After this process was repeated a few times, Mal would lean down and place her lips gently across Evie’s forehead, the girl’s sleeping frown turning into a slightly awake smile. 

As Evie’s eyes opened, they met Mal’s smiling eyes, and the purple haired girl whispered softly. “Hey gorgeous.”

Evie blushed at that. Dozens of people complimented her looks on the daily, but Evie never cared for anyone’s opinion except Mal’s. 

“Good morning.” Evie hummed out, stretching her limbs slowly on the bed. She nestled her head back into the crook in Mal’s neck shortly after, closing her eyes again contentedly. “Hey Carlos.” She added, eyes still closed.

“Hi Eves.” Carlos replied, amused. He had begun to tap his fingers on Jay’s chest softly and rhythmically, letting the boy wake up in a peaceful fashion. 

Mal’s hand went back into Evie’s hair, and a content sigh came out of Evie’s mouth at the action. After a few minutes, Mal’s voice whispered through the silence.

“We gonna get up today?”

“Hmm.”

Mal laughed gently at Evie’s noncommittal reply so as to not jostle her. “Because I’m fully ok with staying here all day long.”

“Don’t we have a wand to steal or something?” Carlos asked, grinning.

“Or like a Chad to body slam again?” Evie added, laughing.

“Screw the wand. And Chad can get fucked. All I ever want is this bed.” Jay mumbled out sleepily, finally awake. To dramatically emphasise his point, he rolled over, pulling the covers more over himself. As Carlos’ legs were on his stomach, Carlos rolled with him, coming down to land next to him on the bed.

Carlos yelped, elbowing Jay in the side. Jay, with his eyes still closed and half asleep, just grinned, bringing his arm across Carlos and resting it on him. Carlos huffed again, but made no move to get away from Jay and his embrace. 

Evie sighed out once more and pulled herself up. Just as she was getting off the bed, Mal grabbed her hand, pulling her back down onto her with a squeal. Mal caught her as she fell onto her and cupped her cheeks, kissing her gently. “Good morning.”

Evie laughed and rolled her eyes, kissing Mal once more as she stood up. “Good morning dork.” She moved to the bathroom and looked back at the three of them in bed. “When I get out of the bathroom you all better be at least standing.”

“You were asleep like 2 minutes ago, I’ve been awake for an hour!” Carlos said.

“And yet you’re still in bed. It’s called tactical sleeping Carlos, get with it.” Evie grinned as she entered the bathroom.

  
“Not fair!” Carlos yelled after her.

“Come on man, Evie’s always going to outsmart you. Just learn to live with it and know she’s always right.”  
  
“That’s why you’re my favourite, Jay.” Evie called out to him.

“I resent that.” Mal added, a fake pout on her face.

“Like I said, learn to live with it.” Jay replied as he laughed and threw a pillow at Mal. She knocked it away easily and threw him the bird, laughing along with the rest of them.

—————

“Eves, stop. You look beautiful. Just eat.” Jay said as he rested his hand on hers, gently squeezing. 

Evie gave a small smile to Jay and put the mirror down, squeezing his hand back gratefully.

“How do they make it so…good?” Carlos mumbled through a mouthful of cake that he proclaimed was obviously a breakfast food.

“Well, they probably use ingredients that are in their best before date, and don’t end with the result of a crawling maggot surprise in your food.” Mal replied, all of them shuddering at memories of the Isle. She moved her hands from her lap when Carlos lay his head there, thoughtfully nodding in agreement. Her fingers found their way into his hair, curling around his already curly locks as they listened to Evie talk. 

“So how long do you think Fairy Godmother is going to spend dancing around the topic of what happened yesterday before she actually brings it up?”

Mal snorted. “Hopefully more than half the class. Remedial goodness is a new form of torture I didn’t know existed.”

“Well at least it’s just us in the room. I hate having to go to my other classes without you guys.” Carlos admitted.

“Same here. Especially when there’s assholes like Chad you have to put up with.” Jay said to Evie.

  
“I don’t know, seeing you crush him yesterday kinda made it all worth it.” She grinned, leaning back on Jay. “Some people here are unsettling. It’s not worse than the Isle, it’s just…weirder.”

  
“Hah, that’s putting it mildly. Have you seen the way Audrey stares at Mal?” 

Laughing at Carlos’ words, Mal nodded. “Like I’m going to turn into a dragon on the spot? It’s kinda fun.”  
  
“It’s a lot of fun.” Carlos agreed.

Mal shrugged, tapping Carlos’ head to sit up as she got off the bed, pulling her bag on. “Well, as long as Chad, Audrey and all the other weirdos stay out of our ways, I don’t care what they think. Let’s just get through another day. Together.”

—————

For some reason, it was always Remedial Goodness where the villain kids got to cause the most mischief. Perhaps it was because they realised Fairy Godmother was trying her best to be non-judgmental and welcoming, and so was more of a pushover than she usually would have been. Or perhaps it was the fact that the kids liked to ironically turn a ‘goodness’ class into one that blew their teacher to peak frustration. 

Whatever it was, it was highly entertaining, and that morning’s class did not disappoint.

From the moment they had walked into the room (late, as usual), Fairy Godmother had opened and closed her mouth so many times she reminded them all of a gaping fish. There was nothing more amusing to them than the headmaster of the pride and joy of Auradon being reduced to this. They got to be cheeky, they got to play on Fairy Godmother’s failed attempts to get them more involved. They got to feel like this was their own small act of revenge, for the way they had to grow up.

“Right, well, I suppose I should stop beating around the bush and just discuss what happened yesterday with you as grown ups.” Fairy Godmother finally got out, halting her pacing up the front to address the kids.

As usual, the kids made her work for it, and sat there, staring up at her. The only movement came from Mal, who crossed her arms with an eyebrow lifted, her signature ‘I’m waiting’ pose that made Fairy Godmother a lot more unsettled than any adult should feel around a teenager.

“You should know that I had Chad pay a visit to my office this morning. I have reprimanded him for the things he said, and let him know that similar actions will not be tolerated in the future. He is to apologise to the four of you, particularly you, Evie.”

Evie smiled sweetly, clasping her hands together and shrugging. “Oh, that’s ok. We’re good.”

Fairy Godmother seemed affronted at that, and almost looked as if she would comment on it, before deciding to soldier on, directing her next comment to Jay.

“I do have to say, however, that I have certain…hesitations about you being on the tourney team if you aren’t willing to play by the rules, and restrain yourself from injuring your team mates. Unfortunately I am going to have to restrict you from participating in games until the coach is satisfied you are ready.” 

Jay, in an almost exact copy of Evie, clasped his hands together and smiled back at Fairy Godmother. “Oh, that’s ok. I didn’t actually want to join the team, as I’m sure you heard yesterday. I’m good.”

Mal, Evie and Carlos had a hard time hiding their smirks, especially when Fairy Godmother let out a sigh, seeming to pep talk herself mentally to keep speaking.

“Well…ok. There is also something else, that came up yesterday, that I would like to talk to you children about.”

Mal sat up straighter, listening. Fairy Godmother usually had a doozy prepared when she addressed them so condescendingly. 

“Jay, dear, I noticed how you evaded the coach putting a hand on your shoulder yesterday at the practice.” 

Jay just stared back at her, wondering where she was going with this.

“The coach had only been responding well to you, and he was trying to be supportive of you.”

“So…you want me to let grown men touch me?” Jay asked slowly, as if he didn’t understand.

Mal, Evie and Carlos couldn’t contain their laughter this time, and it only increased at the flustered and blushing look Fairy Godmother got on her face.

“No, no, goodness no Jay. That is not what I meant at all.”

“Oh, right.” Jay said simply with a shrug, sending a smirk to his friends. 

To her credit, Fairy Godmother continued on, for better or worse. “I don’t mean to pry children, but I just worry that you have had certain…encounters in your past that have led you to be evasive of other people’s touch. There was the incident yesterday, not to mention when Lonnie grabbed Mal’s arm in the hall last week or when Ben tried to pull a twig out of Carlos’ hair the week before that.”

“You have a funny understanding of the word ‘pry’, teach.” Mal stated sharply, arms crossed tighter than before if possible. 

All of the villain kids had lost the cheek and mischievous glints in their eyes, and were bluntly staring at Fairy Godmother. It was clear she had stepped over a line.

“I thought we were here for remedial goodness. Not therapy.” Mal finished, effectively ending the conversation for everyone.

Fairy Godmother sighed, looking at all of them. She saw how Carlos and Jay’s legs touched, and how their arms rested against each other on the desk. She saw how Mal and Evie were pressed together, side by side in their chairs, Mal’s ankle curled around Evie’s. She saw the looks on all of their faces, almost as if they dared her to keep going on the subject.

She knew defeat when she saw it. She also knew it was never going to be this easy, but some part of her had hoped that things would turn out her way.

  
Little did she know, hope didn’t exist on the Isle. You couldn’t trust things or people to turn out your way, so you hid, you evaded, you chose your battles wisely and your pack even more so. Mal, Jay, Evie and Carlos were the best examples of that. 

And it would take a lot more than an overly peppy and preppy teacher to get them to let go of sixteen years of survival skills, that was for sure. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I feel like this one was a bit all over the place but I had way too many ideas in my head for this topic, so just decided to go down this route and write the other ones into separate chapters later. 
> 
> Let me know what you thought below and what you'd like to see in future chapters :)


	3. Money

Pity. It was a feeling the VKs were all too accustomed to, ever since their arrival to the shores of Auradon. If they weren’t being looked at as if they were about to set the place and everyone in it on fire, they were being looked down upon, looked at with sadness, with pity.

The VKs couldn’t _stand_ it.

They couldn’t stand the looks they got from Ben, every time he tried to talk to them and bring up the topic of food. They couldn’t stand the looks they got from Fairy Godmother, when she tried and failed to talk to them about the way they had been treated on the Isle. 

They didn’t need anyone’s pity. Pity hadn’t been the reason they were forced to grow up on the Isle. Pity hadn’t saved them every time their parents yelled at them, criticised them, put their hands on them. Pity was most likely the reason they were at Auradon Prep now, but they refused to let their existence in Auradon be defined by other’s pity for them, and what they thought they knew about them.

Which is how they came to a standoff (or shall we say, yet _another_ standoff) with Fairy Godmother in Remedial Goodness, two weeks into their attendance at Auradon Prep. Fairy Godmother had approached the topic near the end of a lesson, addressing them with just the right amount of condolence in her eyes to piss them all off. Apparently they (whoever ‘they’ were) had decided to use money from a trust to the school to give each of the VKs an allowance of sorts, fortnightly.

Fairy Godmother had finished explaining how it would work to the VKs, and her expression had moved from one of pity, to one of happiness and acceptance, as if her act would bring the kids over to the side of good instantaneously. 

Mal had barely looked at the others, before answering for the four of them. “No, we’re good.”

Seeing Fairy Godmother balk at their unexpected responses never got old for the VKs.

“I beg your pardon?”

“You what?” Mal replied, having genuinely never heard that phrase before.

Fairy Godmother shook her head slightly, as if to brush away the shock that Mal’s answer gave her. “I’m not sure if you understood me, children. I explained that we are going to use money from the school, that has been given over the years by various members of the United States of Auradon nobility, so that you can have an allowance and enjoy all that Auradon has to offer.”

Mal nodded, and crossed her arms. “We understood. That’s why I said no.”

“Why on Earth would you say no to this?”

Mal, not willing to give their reasoning out, just shrugged her shoulders in the exact way that exasperated Fairy Godmother to no end. The bell rang out, saving all of them from having to be interrogated more by Fairy Godmother about this, and they started to get up.

“Well, I’m going to give you all a chance to think about it, despite your answer today. We will revisit this in a few days.”

Mal, having made sure the others were up, and that Jay was in front of them, turned back to Fairy Godmother, shrugging her shoulders again. “You can if you want. But we won’t have changed our minds.” She followed Jay, Carlos and Evie out of the class, and wasn’t surprised at all that instead of heading to their next class, Jay turned left and lead them back to the boys room, to discuss what just happened.

When they were back inside, they all dropped their bags on the ground and faced each other.

“Who does she think she is? Did you see the way she looked at us? Like we were some street dog in an enclosure or something. Like we are poor souls who need to be babied. She doesn’t know shit.” Mal fumed, crossing her arms.

The others nodded their heads, equally as irritated.

“Does she think we’re that stupid? Acting like she’s just going to give us free money. Nothing is free. It will come back to bite us.” Jay said, knowing Mal made the right decision. 

“Plus, she said the money came from a trust, from Auradon’s nobility.” 

Evie nodded at Carlos’ statement, pitching in. “And who do we think are Auradon’s nobility? No more than Prince Philip, Princess Aurora, Aladdin and Princess Jasmine, the Radcliffes, Snow White. They would sooner keel over and die than give the children of their enemies money.”

“Then we would owe something to the people who our parents tormented. Just so they could, what? Torment us? Own us? Fuck no, there is no way we are taking that money.” 

“It’s ok, Jay. We’re not going to. There’s no way we would ever put ourselves in that position.” Mal said, stepping closer to Jay. “Anyways, she acts like we have no money. She clearly hasn’t seen Jay and his nimble hands get to work.” 

Mal waved her hand and the envelope of money Jay had accumulated (read: stolen) over their short time in Auradon floated up out of his set of drawers, dangling in the air. The other three smirked, liking the feeling of one-upping the Auradonians. 

“Plus, it’s not like we even need money.” She continued. “We have food that’s ours for the taking, and no one has seen any sign that that will go away anytime soon. Jay can theoretically get anything he or we could ever want. We’ve got full range of magic, the more I practice the more we can have. This place makes it too easy for us.” 

“Money does seem to rule everything here.” Carlos noted, sitting at a chair in the table. “The school is set up very hierarchically. Even though they try to boast inclusivity.”

Mal snorted. “There’s a shock.”

“Even though we don’t need money, it wouldn’t hurt to think about ways we could get it. On our own. You know, just incase.” Evie said, as she moved to the chair Carlos sat in, running her hands through his curly locks. 

Mal nodded, reaching down for her bag again. “That’s a good point, E. Better to be safe than sorry. If any of us see an opportunity in the next while, let’s grab at it.”

—————

Said ‘opportunity’ came around faster than any of them were expecting, in the form of Fairy Godmother’s own daughter. No less than a day after Mal had cornered Jane in the bathroom (which was a story Evie would have paid to see), the girl had knocked on their door.

Mal and Evie shared a look of intrigue - Mal from Evie’s bed, and Evie from the desk. They knew the boys were causing whatever sort of mischief down at the field, plus they never needed to knock, so they wondered who it could be. Before they could ask, a timid voice arose out of the door.

“Mal? It’s Jane.”

Evie suppressed a snigger as Mal rolled her eyes, slamming her head down onto her book. She did _not_ want to deal with Jane of all people right now. Evie, taking full delight in Mal’s annoyance, flicked her head at the door with a cheeky grin and waggling eyebrows. 

“Just know that I hate you.”

Evie rested her hand on her chin in response, blowing a kiss to Mal. “I love you too.”

With a flick of her wrist, Mal shot the door open, startling Jane. The shy girl had clearly expected be greeted at the door, but when she realised Mal and Evie were both busying themselves with various tasks, not even bothering to look up at her, she slowly stepped into the room.

“Hey guys.”

Neither Mal nor Evie responded straight away, and Evie, not willing to let Mal off the hook she was so hilariously placed on in this situation, subtly cleared her throat. Mal sighed, putting her pencil down.

“Jane! So good to see you.”

(It was abundantly clear to Evie that nothing in Mal’s statement was true). 

“I talked to my mom, like you suggested.”

This actually caught Mal’s attention. After all, despite how Jane annoyed her, she was a potential key to getting the wand and fulfilling their parent’s plan. She raised an eyebrow at her, indicating she should continue talking.

“And it didn’t go well.”

And that, was the end of Mal’s attention. She grumbled under her breath, ignoring the fact that she could see Evie let out a small smirk in front of her, and picked up her pencil again. Clearly, Jane didn’t get the memo. She crossed over the room and leaned against the bedpost (far too close to Mal for her liking), and continued to speak her woes. 

“Mom said, if a boy can’t see the beauty within, then he’s not worth it. Can you believe it? What world does she live in?”

Mal scoffed, still tracing her drawing. “Auradon?” She muttered out, angrily.

Of course, this would be the only place where the worst thing that could happen between a parent and child is that the parent genuinely wants their child to love themselves and be confident. Jane would get eaten alive on the Isle. 

Evie, sensing that Mal’s brooding could lead this away from being an entertaining altercation to one where she would have to damage control, stopped mid-sew, holding up her dress.

“Mal, do you like?”

It was a stupid question, really. Mal loved everything Evie made, and always supported her. Evie could see that Mal knew she was trying to side track her, and her initial clipped responses demonstrated that.

“Yeah. It’s cute.” She replied, with barely a second glance at the garment Evie was holding up. She scratched her pencil more on the page, and Evie could see the exact second that Mal decided to give up on her desire to be short with Evie, knowing she couldn’t be annoyed at her even for a second. “It brings out your eyes.”

Evie made eye contact with Mal as she looked up on her last words, smiling warmly at the girl as they connected. Then, her cheeky smile was back, as she looked down at her dress. “I know!”

Shaking her head with a smile, Mal went back to her drawing, knowing but not even caring how head over heels she was for that girl. She started a new drawing on the bottom half of her page, beginning the outlines of a face she had drawn a thousand times over in that book already.

“I’ll never get a boyfriend.”

Mal wished she could have forgotten Jane was still in the room. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Jane slump down on her bed (seriously, these Auradon kids had no concept of personal space) and she continued to outline Evie’s face as she spoke.

“Boyfriends, are overrated.”

“And how would you know, Mal? You’ve never had one.” Evie said, with the biggest grin of smug satisfaction on her face. She looked at Mal with innocent but playful eyes, resting her chin on her hand delicately.

Mal looked up from her paper to see Evie’s cheek, and shook her head again, a small grin threatening to arise on her own lips. That little shit.

“It’s cause I don’t _need_ one, E.” She responded, seeing Evie’s grin break off her face into a silent laugh.

It was amusing to the two girls, to think of each other having a boyfriend. They had been together on the Isle for as long as they could remember, there had never been anyone else. They were like Jay and Carlos, except for the fact that they didn’t beat around the bush for years and years about their feelings. 

“They’re a waste of time.” Mal added to Jane as an afterthought, when she and Evie had been gazing at each other for a few seconds. 

Jane, seemingly too deep in her own woes to pick up on the irony of Mal and Evie talking about boyfriends, just let out a sigh as she continued to lay on Mal’s bed. Before Mal could wonder what kind of whining torture Jane would unleash on them next, another knock sounded at their door and a tall girl waltzed into the room. 

Evie and Mal stared at her as she came to a stop in the middle of the room, a smile on her face. They were continually surprised at the lack of regard for intrusion and space people here had. If it were anyone or any place else, the girls would have been more cautious as to who they allowed into their room. But the girls seemed harmless, so they let it go.

“Hey guys, I’m Lonnie.”

Not willing to respond to someone who barged into their room uninvited, they merely stared at her with raised eyebrows. 

“My mom’s Mulan?” Lonnie continued, in a slower, more uncertain tone.

Mal gave her nothing, Evie just lifted the dress from the sewer and shut it closed again, making a thud in the quiet room.

“No? Anyways.” Lonnie continued, seemingly unperturbed by the lack of care about her parental past. 

(If she had thought about it more she would have quickly realised why the VKs would be so against caring or showing interest in introducing yourself based on who your parents were).

“I _love_ what you’ve done with Jane’s hair.” Lonnie gushed, seeing Mal let out a fake smile for half a second. “And I know you hate us, and well…you’re evil -” (This time garnering a genuine smile from Mal), “But, do you think you could do mine?”

Evie stood up from behind the sewing desk, coming around to stand by the table next to where Lonnie stood. This was going to be good.

Mal’s response didn’t disappoint, and Evie had to contain a snigger at her perplexed face as she stopped drawing, looking over at Lonnie with a stare of incredulity. “Why would I do that for you?”

Lonnie shrugged, pulling out a pouch that jangled as it moved. “I’ll pay you $50?”

Evie’s Isle reflexes upon hearing money near her sparked as she snatched the pouch out of Lonnie’s hand, clasping it tightly in her own. “Good answer.” She said, making eye contact with Mal as the two registered what this could mean for them. “I need to buy more material.” She added as an afterthought, so Lonnie and Jane wouldn’t be suspicious as to their desire for money.

The opportunity they had sought to make money had presented itself to them, in the form of girls willing to pay anything to enhance their own perceived notions of ‘beauty’. This would be too easy. Still, after an afternoon of playful banter, neither Mal nor Evie was willing to let this entertainment slip, and decided to have some more fun with each other and the other girls in the room while they could.

Lonnie’s eyes widened in fear on reflex when Evie stood closer to her, hand on her shoulder as she spoke. “Let’s see, I’m thinking we lose the bangs, maybe add some layers and some highlights!”

Mal let out a puff of air as if she were bored, but was internally trying not to smirk at Evie just rattling off a random list of words associated with hair in her fake excited voice. 

“No, I want it cool. Like Mal’s.” 

“Really?” Was Evie’s response to Lonnie’s statement. She looked over at Mal who had an expectant amused stare already on her, as if she was waiting to see what Evie did with this opportunity. “The split ends too?”

Mal put her pencil down, her stare on Evie losing some of it’s amusement. The split ends comment harked back to one of the first times they were in Curl Up and Dye with Dizzy as children, and they had the unfortunate experience of running into Lady Tremaine as she passed through the store to the staircase. The old woman managed to insult all of them without breaking a stride, but the one that made them laugh the most and that never really left their repertoire of playful insults was her comment on Mal’s split ends.

Evie shook the coin pouch at Mal, grin still firmly in place, and Mal let out another seemingly annoyed grumble (although Evie knew better), rolling off the bed to get the spell book that was on her bedside table. She came back to the bed, leaning against the post as she pointed her finger at the page, reading aloud.

“ _Beware, foreswear, replace the old with…cool hair.”_

A few flicks of her hand later, the room watched as the hair on Lonnie’s head grew and changed colour. The girl moved to the mirror, Jane following to stand beside her, and Evie moved over to stand beside Mal, still grinning at her.

“I love it!” Lonnie gushed into the mirror. “It’s just…”

Everyone’s eyes widened when Lonnie ripped her skirt on the side, looking impressed with herself that she had the courage to do it. Mal swung off the bedpost, hiding her face in Evie’s shoulder briefly as she tried not to laugh. These Auradon kids seriously thought they were tough.

“Now I’m cool.”  
  
Mal picked her head back up, but stayed just as close to Evie. “Yeah, like ice.” She deadpanned. 

When they saw Jane step closer to the mirror, Evie tapped her hand against Mal’s arm in amused excitement, hoping the entertainment would continue and they would get to see the daughter of the Fairy Godmother do the same. 

Jane didn’t disappoint as she too, ripped her dress, only to gasp in horror at her actions a second later. “What did I just do? Mom’s gonna kill me!”

“I don’t know, Jane. I think she’ll love it.” Evie drawled out.

“Yeah, in fact, why don’t you both go show her?” Mal added, coming up behind them to usher them out quickly. She didn’t let them get another word in as they got past the line of the door, and Mal put on her best fake sweet smile, waving at them as she shut the door practically on their faces.

Evie and Mal both burst out laughing the second the door was closed - the spell Mal had on the room meant no sound could escape. 

“You, are going to be the death of me.” Mal said with a grin as she moved towards Evie, pinning her back against the bedpost.

“Me? Whatever did I do?” Evie responded innocently, laughing still.

“You know what you do.” 

Mal stole a few kisses from Evie until Evie’s hands came up to Mal’s face, pulling her away so she could speak. “I know.” She said again, same cheeky tone to her voice as she pulled Mal back to her, reclaiming her lips once again.

—————

“Wait, so you mean she gave you $50 just for doing a spell you could have absolutely done for free?” Jay responded slowly as he sat on Mal’s bed next to Evie.

Mal laughed, nodding at his blatant shock.

“What won’t girls do to look how they think they should?”

Carlos shrugged his head at Jay, coming down to sit next to Mal on Evie’s bed. “I dunno, I reckon there’s potential in the market for guys to want Mal’s magic work as well.”

“Let’s stick to the girls for now, at least we know there’s a definite interest there. If Mal only did Jane’s hair yesterday and Lonnie already found out, who knows who else will be wanting to try it.”

“Evie’s right. But, I say let’s play hard to get. Make them come to us.”

Evie nodded at Mal. “Yeah, Mal definitely played up the begrudging participant role today and that’s what caused Lonnie to pull out the cash.”

“I wasn’t begrudging when you brought up the split ends comment.”

Jay and Carlos let out a cackle, remembering the Lady Treamine incident as well. 

“Never gets old.” Jay wiped his eyes in fake cry-laughter.

Mal just rolled her eyes again at their amusement, punching Carlos lightly in the arm as he was the nearest one to her. “Fuck you all.”

—————

As it turned out, playing ‘hard to get’ didn’t require any effort at all, as Lonnie approached the four VKs the next day after they were leaving Remedial Goodness.

“There you are Mal, I’ve been looking for you!”

“You found me.” Mal replied, a sarcastic undertone to her voice.

“You know, all the girls want you to do their hair.”

Mal smirked, arms crossing over her body. “Do they now?

“They’re all willing to pay as well.”

“I’m sure they are.”

Lonnie seemed unsure of how to continue the conversation, expecting Mal to give her more than that. “So, will you do it? Please say you will!”

“I mean, I’d love to, but we’ve got to get to class. You know, stuff to learn, plans to plot, credibility to restore and all that.” Mal shrugged. “But…if you wanted to get word out that we’ll be by the tourney field after school today, there’s a chance I’ll be able to work some magic for them.”

“Amazing!” Lonnie squeaked, beaming in place. “I’ll let everyone know!”

With that, she ran off, and Mal turned in slow motion to her friends behind her, holding her hands up. “And that, is how it’s done.”

“You make them doubt your commitment so they turn to begging, you act like it’s hard to give in, and they end up doing all the work for you. Nicely done.” Jay praised, fist bumping her.

“Also, did anyone notice Mal explicitly told her we went to class to plot and she didn’t even catch on?” Evie said, taking Mal’s hand as they walked down the hallway.

Carlos laughed. “It’s Auradon. They’re so innocently ignorant, it’s truly baffling.”

“How can a place make me so amused and enraged all at once? They make it too easy for us.” Mal wondered out loud.

“I’m not going to be convinced of this plan until I see it in action this afternoon. Do you even think they will come?”

Evie looked back at Jay, shaking her head at the poor confused boy who had no idea how deep the influence of beauty and popularity ran in girls. “Oh, they’ll be there.”

————— 

As usual, Evie was right. When the VKs hit the entrance of the field, they all stopped mid step and stared at the group of girls that were gathered on the side of one of the bleachers.

“You don’t think…”

Mal smirked at Jay, starting to walk again. “Oh, I do.”

“Holy shit.”

“Holy shit is right, Jay. Holy. Shit.” Carlos repeated as he stared in wonder at the group. 

When they got closer, some of the girls (who numbered to about 30 in total) seemed to recognise them. Lonnie and Jane were also there, and turned to welcome them. The VKs scanned the group quickly, checking for any threats. Some of the students showed apprehension at their presence, but on the whole they were satisfied this was going to be quick and painless.

“Hey! You came!” Lonnie excitedly welcomed them as they came to a halt in front of the group, a safe few yards away. 

“That we did.” Mal nodded, arms crossed. “Alright, so who’s first?”

The group of girls looked around at each other, until one brave soul stepped forward, hands in her hair excitedly.

“You got the money?”

Behind Mal, she heard Jay snort at her words and whisper to Carlos. “What is this, a drug deal?”

She turned to him, laughing in annoyance as she flipped him off and then pulled him towards her. “You’re a little shit sometimes, you know that?”

He grinned back, elbowing Mal in the side. “I know.” 

“Well then stay up here with me and be useful. You can collect the money.”

As Mal said that, she looked back at Evie and Carlos to make sure they were still close by in case anything went down. They both stepped up by Jay as well, and Mal relaxed a bit seeing that Jay had got them, knowing her magic would take all her attention. She eventually turned back to the group of girls, focussing in on the one in front, who seemed to falter a bit on her full gaze.

“Well, do you?” Mal repeated again, her question from before going unanswered.

The girl spurred into life and pulled a pouch out of her pocket, holding it out to them as if to show she wasn’t lying. Jay grinned at the sight, sauntering forward to collect it.

“Alright.” Mal started, clearing her throat.

“Wait!” The girl interrupted, stopping Mal just before she could start the spell. “You’re going to do it like how you did Lonnie’s…right?”

Mal, annoyed at the interruption, just stared at her. “That’s why we’re here, isn’t it?”

The girl seemed to falter at Mal’s bluntness again, and nodded, as if the answer was entirely obvious.

“ _Alright_ ,” Mal started again, a tone to her voice that demanded no further interruption. ‘ _Beware, foreswear, replace the old, with cool hair.”_

Sounds of awe, surprise, shock and excitement left the mouths of all the girls as they watched their fellow classmate’s hair go from a straight plain hair style to the luscious wavy locks that Lonnie and Jane were also donning. When the girl squealed in happiness at her reaction in the mirror, the rest of the girls immediately lost their apprehension, all rushing forward to be next in line.

Mal put her hands up with a deadly look, stopping them all in place. “If any of you touch me, Evie, Jay or Carlos, you _don’t_ want to know what else these hands can do. Go back to where you were, and decide who is next.”

Evie smirked beside Mal, knowing she was serious about her threat. She watched as the girls seemed to sober at Mal’s tone and words, and it reminded her of when Mal had to corral the Isle street kids when they needed their help on an operation. Even the most wild of the kids sat down and shut up when Mal put on that voice, her eyes sparking. 

A little over halfway through the line, Jay’s pockets had begun to bulge, and Evie immediately stepped forward, opening her bag for him to empty the money into. Carlos took over collecting as they sorted the pouches, and the line eventually dwindled down to a few remaining girls. 

“You know, Mal, thanks so much for doing this. Yesterday and today I’ve had more girls talk to me than ever before! And for a change, they wanted something I had. I’m a trend setter!” Jane rambled as Mal flicked her wrist at the last girl, eventually able to relax the magic away.

“Cool like ice, Jane.” She said, reaching her hand back instinctually to feel Evie’s slip into it.

“It’s all anyone will be talking about for days.” Lonnie confirmed, coming to stand beside them.

Mal thought about replying, but instead her eyes caught something in the distance, in the form of a blue and yellow cheer uniform. She watched as Audrey stopped a girl who had gotten her hair done minutes before, and waved her arms about as if demanding to know how it had occurred. When the girl pointed over in their direction, Mal saw Audrey’s eyes widen in anger at the sight of them, throwing her pom poms down and stomping away.

“That sounds perfect to me.” Mal smirked at Lonnie, giving Evie’s hand a squeeze and letting herself be pulled away back to the school.

—————

Mal couldn’t figure out if Audrey really had no idea how loud she was all the time, or if she was just that conceited that she didn’t care who overheard her petty life issues. Mal listened by her locker as Audrey whined to Ben about the new hair craze that was sweeping the school.

“Do you think they actually paid for those?” Audrey asked Ben, staring at a group of girls sitting at a table on the grass. She didn’t let Ben answer, before she was speaking again. “She did it to Jane’s hair too, and Fairy Godmother’s not happy about it!”

“She?”

Audrey rolled her eyes at Ben. “You know who I’m talking about.”

“Well, _she_ has a name.”

“Bennyboo, don’t test me.” Audrey said, smiling her innocent but deadly smile. 

“Wait, what isn’t Fairy Godmother happy about?”

“She’s not happy about Jane’s hair being tampered with, but she’s mostly unhappy about the roaming hair salon that the villains have set up.”

Mal smirked into her locker, both at the use of the term ‘roaming hair salon’, and the fact that Audrey referred to a group of teenagers as ‘villains’. She turned her head to the left and saw Jay next to her, also silently laughing. 

“Audrey, you cannot call them that! I’ve already asked you to stop.” Ben said, shaking his head. 

Audrey ignored him, soldering on. “Well, in any case, she’s exploiting her magic for monetary gain.”

“I…can’t remember any rule in the school handbook saying that wasn’t allowed. What’s the harm?” Ben retorted, and for a split second Mal felt some solidarity with the boy, who was clearly sticking up for them.

Audrey, on the other hand, just looked at Ben as if he was as smart as a plank of wood. “It’s gateway magic! Sure it _starts_ with the hair, next thing you know it’s the lips, and the legs, and the clothes, and then everyone looks good, and then…where will I be?”

“Listen, Audrey -” Ben tried to start, but Audrey cut him off.

“I will see you at the game after my dress fitting for the coronation, ok? Bye Bennyboo.”

A few lockers down, Evie came up behind Mal and gagged, making Mal spin around and laugh into her shoulder. 

“Shall I start calling you Evieboo?”

“Only if you want to be sleeping alone.” Evie fired back, an eyebrow raised in amusement.

“Hmmm, I don’t know.”

Carlos cackled from beside Jay, pressed into his side. “You can’t even joke about that, Mal. I can hear your pout all the way down the hall if you’re in bed and Evie isn’t there with you.”

“Shut up, Carlos.” Mal crossed her arms, said pout threatening to show through.

Evie laughed at Mal’s dismay, reaching down and tangling their fingers together. “It’s ok, Mallymoo, I still love you.” 

“Don’t even think about it.” Mal said, rolling her eyes with fondness at Evie. She then looked down the row of lockers and saw the prince heading their way. “Oh, great.”

“Hey, guys!” Ben’s consistent enthusiasm still took the VKs by surprise every time they saw him. “Just the people I’ve been looking for.”

“That’s never good.” 

Ben smiled at Mal, shaking his head. “I heard from Fairy Godmother that you turned down the allowance offered from the school trust?”

Mal just shrugged her shoulders in response, the other three VKs offering no further answer for Ben, either.

“Can I ask why?” Ben questioned, apprehensively.

Mal shrugged again. “I mean, you can ask whatever you want. Doesn’t mean you’ve got the right to an answer.”

A crease formed on Ben’s forehead, as if he was trying to think about his next words very carefully. “It’s just…I thought this would be something you would all jump at the chance to have.”

“Right, because we’re poor desperate little souls who will scrape any scrap of charity you throw at the ground for us?”

Ben was taken aback by Mal’s answer, and shook his head, stumbling over his words. “No, that’s not what I meant.”

Mal didn’t know why this conversation was firing her up so much. Maybe it was because she was done with the pity comments. Maybe it was because she was fed up with people never giving a second thought to what life was like growing up on the Isle. Maybe it was because she knew Ben was too nice for his own good and would take what she was throwing at him. Whatever the reason, it was definitely finding surface now. 

“None of you ever ask before doing something you think will be helpful for us. You just make assumptions, and the thought never pops into your head that you could be wrong. You didn’t bother to ask us about our financial situations. Do you even know how money works on the Isle?”

“Don’t you…they…have the same currency as Auradon?”

All the VKs let out a mirthless laugh at Ben’s answer, with Mal voicing her incredulity. “Do you hear yourself? The same currency as Auradon? The Isle has no money coming in or out, no banks. How could we maintain a currency? Ben, you’re going to be the king, and you don’t know shit about the Isle…I genuinely don’t even know if I’m surprised.” She said, the last part aimed at her friends behind her.

“I’m not.” Jay said, his arms crossed across his body.

“On the Isle it’s dog eat dog…literally.” Carlos said with a shudder. “There’s money, sure. But it’s rare. And when you have no money, but you have to eat? You pay with favours.”

“And in case you were about to ask, you don’t have the right to know what that means either.” Mal said, darkly, and Ben hated to let his imagination wander at what she could mean.

“Let’s stay on topic.” Evie said abruptly, always worried they would give more away than necessary. The less people in Auradon knew about their lives on the Isle, the better.

“I-I’m sorry, to all of you. I can see how not speaking to you beforehand was presumptuous of me. And I’m sorry I didn’t know about money on the Isle. The more I learn from you all, the more I realise how much we don’t know.”

Mal rolled her eyes at the most blatant understatement to come out of Ben’s mouth yet. “You’re 16 years too late, Ben. Tell that to Fairy Godmother, tell that to the King and whoever else has decided for us what we need and how we will need it. We’ve survived for this long, no nominal pity act is going to change that.”

“But I want to help, I want to change things. For you all, and for the rest of the Isle.”

“Then pick up a book, _Bennyboo_.” Mal said flatly. “You can’t tell me that goody-two-shoes Auradon has no files on what gets sent to the Isle, what gets seen there? I’ll bet they’re in a box labelled ‘this is too taxing to think about, so let’s just pretend the people we locked on an island with sub-standard living conditions don’t exist.’ The only thing worse than pitying us is trying to play us for fools.”

Ben stared at the ground at her statement, knowing it was true, and not knowing how to respond. Evie seemed to take some pity on him, and started to speak.

“Look, Ben. I know it wasn’t your decision to create the Isle. And I know you brought us here. But the world isn’t black and white. Your parents and most adults we’ve encountered here seem to believe they can point to one thing and say it’s good, and the other thing is evil. Nothing is wholly good or evil. To think that, is being presumptuous. The sooner you stop doing that, the sooner you can help the Isle.”

Ben looked up at her, at all of them, and sighed. “I’m not trying to make this harder for you all. I don’t want to be your enemy. I’m still figuring all of this out myself.”

The VKs stood in silence, not sure where to go from there. Carlos seemed to be in an internal battle with himself and huffed out, before tugging on the back of Mal’s jacket, making her and the others turn to him. He raised his eyebrow at them, asking an unspoken question. They nodded, knowing they had just given Carlos permission to reveal some of their reasoning to Ben.

“A word of advice? If you think what you’re doing is going to help us, think outside us. It’s not just money you’re offering us. If it was, of course we would take it. It’s not about pride. It’s money coming from people who hate our parents, and who probably hate us. When you come from a place where nothing is for free, where debts can hurt you, kill you…you might be able to figure out why we won’t take it.”

They hated that Ben instantly got a look of pity on his face after hearing that. His eyes wide with sorrow, his face creased. It was exactly the reaction they didn’t want to see, even though they knew it would be showing up a lot more in the weeks to come.

Ben noticed after Carlos revealed that to him how they had pressed tighter together, how they seemed tense and uncomfortable, how their eyes darted around more. Almost as if they thought that revealing that vulnerability would subject them to attack. It was then that he realised how huge it was that they had shared that with him at all. “I…I never thought. I didn’t know. I’m going to fix this, I will.” He said to them, earnestly.

They just stared back at him, clearly ready to be anywhere but there. He noticed Evie and Mal’s tight hand hold, and how Jay slipped his hand into Carlos’ pocket, to link their fingers together as well. He wanted to push, but he was starting to learn when to let things go. He had learnt more than enough, for today.

So, he gave them a small smile as he dipped his head in a farewell, not even having to look back up to know they would have slipped away the second he gave them the chance, retreating back to safety for another day.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had to rewrite the scene at the end with Ben and the VKs about 50 times, because I didn't want to make Ben seem like a bad guy. He's the sweetest. But he's also like everyone else in Auradon - ignorant to the Isle. Unlike the movie, in this series the VKs are a lot more apprehensive to open up, and a lot more defensive. They want people to work for their answers and their respect because they're pissed off about having to grow up on the Isle. But I feel they're more likely to go easy on Ben than on someone like Fairy Godmother, which is why they started to open up to him at the end. 
> 
> In later chapters the more the VKs learn about Auradon, the more they and Ben can bond! Baby steps, friends. As always, let me know what you thought!


	4. History

Mal, Evie, Jay and Carlos knew they came to Auradon for a mission. They knew their attendance at Auradon Prep wasn’t going to lead them to a brighter future on this side of the shore, and they knew they would be the first and last VKs invited. They were here for one thing, and one thing only. To get the wand. 

However, planning like that took time. After they had failed to retrieve the wand on their first night, they realised it was going to be a lot harder than they had originally anticipated. They would have to wait for the perfect time to strike - none of them were keen on having their covers blown by a sloppy plan.

In the mean time, the four found themselves actually attending class. This was both a foreign and familiar concept for them. Sure, they had the Dragon Hall school back on the Isle, but classes were so haphazardly thrown together it could barely be counted as one. Teachers showed up when they wanted to, fights were a daily occurrence, and homework was a non-existent thing unless it benefitted the teacher in someway. 

Not every child attended, either. If their parents required their services in any way, there was no way their education would be prioritised. Carlos never attended school when Cruella was up in arms over her furs. If Evie was deemed anything less than perfect by her mother, she was trapped in her castle all day, forced to listen to her mother’s barking about princesses. Maleficent often stopped Mal’s attendance, preferring to send her daughter on a rampage through the streets, reasserting their dominance and power if she thought people were forgetting their place. And Jay? Well Jay was the least likely of them all to be in school, with Jafar demanding his stealing abilities day in and day out. The most Jay could manage was random hours every day or so, mostly showing up to reassert his, Mal, Carlos and Evie’s dominance throughout the rest of the villain kids, not actually to learn anything. So when it came to regular attendance at Auradon Prep? It was never going to be a smooth ride.

There was Remedial Goodness, a class the VKs both loathed and found hilarious. They were only a week or so in, and they weren’t sure how long their toying with Fairy Godmother could go on for before she snapped, but they were highly enjoying the process while it lasted. The one benefit about Remedial Goodness, however, was that they were altogether. All of their other classes saw them split up, with various arrangements of the four spread across them.

All, apart from history. 

And if there was one class they’d want to make sure they were all together for solidarity? It sure as hell was this one. Reliving the past was bad enough when their parents never stopped talking about it back on the Isle, but now they had to sit through an Auradonian version of the stories in excruciating, broken down detail.

For the VKs, it was pure torture. And just to rub salt into the wound, _of course_ Fairy Godmother taught this class as well. Didn’t she have a school to run or something?

This was the reason that they found themselves in a familiar position as the time for lunch was ticking to an end. They were lounging together in the girl’s dorm room, battling with the fact that they had to leave for history soon. They were yet to miss a history class, but every day that passed they got _that_ much closer to not going. They hated that class. Fairy Godmother was too much for one lesson, let alone two. They had already heard enough about these stories from their parents. Plus, why go to class when they could nap on a full stomach of delicious food that they were getting dangerously used to? 

If they were being honest with themselves, their reasoning for not wanting to be in the class ran much deeper than that. Even if it was never explicitly said out loud, they all knew it. They were sitting in a class full of the children of their parents’ sworn enemies, learning how their parents almost destroyed their lives and could have changed the course of history. It’s not like they didn't want to hear about it because they felt sorry for their fellow students - these prissy, poncy kids wouldn’t know a hard time if it hit them in the face - but still, there was something deeply uncomfortable about sitting through it. They hated feeling powerless in a room where everyone else was on their high horse, thinking they were so much better than them. It was a strange kind of vulnerability they were subjecting themselves to, and it made their skin crawl.

“Today’s the day. I can’t sit through another hour of this bullshit. I’m not going to class.” Mal said with commitment, crossing her arms from where she sat on her bed.

Evie, having used the remaining time of lunch to keep working on a new dress, barely looked up in recognition at Mal’s statement. However, that didn't mean she wasn’t surprised in the slightest to hear it. In fact, she was surprised it had taken Mal this long to address it. 

Evie was no idiot, she knew her girlfriend inside and out. She had seen the way Mal faulted ever so slightly in their last history class when Fairy Godmother had announced their next set of lessons would be on historical magical artefacts, starting with Maleficent’s spinning wheel and sceptre. She had seen the way that all heads turned to theirs, only to be met with hardened stares from all of them, and glowing green eyes from Mal. She knew that Mal would rather be anywhere, except perhaps the Isle, than sit through the lesson that was about to occur. She had decided then and there that when Mal would inevitably announce she wasn’t going to go to the next class, she would stay back with her. It’s not like she could blame her for not wanting to go, Evie would hate to hear about her mother for an hour as well. She did want to discuss it with her, but figured the right time and place would appear without having to force a conversation.

“Thank god.” Jay sighed out, laying back on Evie’s bed with his hands behind his head. “I could use a nap.”

Carlos just grinned, continuing to speedily type away on the laptop Jay had stolen for him a few days back. Evie didn’t stop sewing either, and the lack of objection at her statement seemed to please Mal, a satisfied smile coming onto her face. 

“Fairy Godmother isn’t going to be happy.” Jay said, still laying back on the bed with his eyes closed. 

Mal shrugged as she lay down on her bed, mimicking Jay’s pose. “When is she ever with us?”

“Well it’s not like we’re exactly aiming to be her new favourite students.” Evie stated, eyes on the dress she was meticulously threading together.

“Especially not after your comment in the first history class, Mal.” Carlos laughed along with the others, all of them remembering back to that day.

—————

_The bell was about to sound through the school as the VKs walked through the door of the class. They each had a look of indifference on their faces, but in their heads, they were on high alert. New spaces full of people posed a problem they hadn’t had for years on the Isle - establishing dominance in order to be safe. If everyone feared you, no one touched you, and that’s how they survived._

_The first step to this, was a good vantage point. Somewhere they could see the whole room, and somewhere they could make a quick escape. The row of four desks sitting just to the right of the door were quickly scoped out by all of them as the only seats they would be willing to sit in. They zeroed in on their destination but were halted as a tweedy boy sat down first, not having noticed them. These Auradonian kids were so dangerously oblivious to their surroundings._

_Mal sighed in irritation, just wanting to slump into the chair and zone out for the hour whilst playing footsie with Evie under the table. Jay turned back to her, being at the front of their group, and she met his eyes, nodding with a cheeky sparkle. This wasn’t going to be the first time they had to use intimidation to get what they needed and it certainly wouldn’t be the last. They were glad about this, because scaring these precious porcelain dolls was so much fun._

_When this particular boy heard Jay clearing his throat and look down on him with an aggressive glare, Jay didn’t even have to open his mouth before the boy was scrambling up and away from the desk, barely remembering to grab his backpack in his haste._

_The VKs smirked, walking up to their now free, and forever more claimed seats._

_“Oh you have got to be joking.” Carlos groaned under his breath as the bell rang, and they looked up to see who the teacher was. “Did anyone else know Fairy Godmother taught this class as well?”_

_They all shook their heads in response, equally as displeased to have her teach them again. They weren’t sure how many more hours of patronising learning and overly optimistic cheer they could take from her._

_“Well this class just got a lot more interesting.” Jay said._

_Mal snorted. “What, more than it already was? We’re about to get the Auradonian version of history in a room full of children that may never have been alive because of our parents. This class is going to be an agonising and hilarious travesty from start to finish.”_

_“Game on.” Evie murmured under her breath as Fairy Godmother started to speak, making the other three smirk._

_The class was mostly uneventful, and Mal fazed in and out of focus for the majority of it. She had her sketchbook out, and had taken to sketching out the details in the wall at the front of the room when she saw Fairy Godmother writing on the chalk board - ‘why is history important?’_

_“Spare me.” She muttered, feeling Evie’s ankle curl around hers under the table._

_“Because history repeats itself.” A voice piped up from the room._

_“Great answer!” Fairy Godmother beamed, turning around to write it on the chalkboard._

_“It’s about to again.” Carlos whispered to the VKs, referring to their parents plan to regain their power._

_“So we can learn from the past.”_

_“Hm, yeah you guys are really doing that well. Let’s, for instance, banish Maleficent so she’s excluded from attending anything exciting or important ever again because that worked out_ so _well for you all last time. She won’t be harbouring any resentment or anger like she did last time right?Because we’ve totally learned our lesson - ”_

_“By doing the exact same thing again.” Jay finished Mal’s sentence, voice full of all the sarcasm she had in her whispers as well. All of them were trying hard not to burst out laughing in the middle of the class, settling for exasperated shaking of heads and eye rolls._

_“To see how we got here.” Another student called out._

_“Could you elaborate on what you mean by ‘here’?”_

_“Like, the United States of Auradon. Why it was created.” The student said in response to Fairy Godmother._

_“I think we all know why it was created.” Chad sneered, not subtly at all turning around to where the VKs sat at the back of the room._

_None of the VKs resisted the urge to eye roll at him, with Mal crossing her arms and Jay cracking his knuckles._

_“Yeah we do. Beast saw an opportunity to gain control over kingdoms that are objectively far cooler, richer and more influential than his is, just to establish a permanent line of hereditary power.” Mal said, her voice a little louder than it had been before. A few students in rows ahead of them definitely heard her comment, but only a few of the bravest souls dared to turn back and look at her in disagreement. They quickly regretted the decision when she flashed her green eyes at them, and they hurried their gaze back to the board._

_Mal looked up to see Fairy Godmother staring at them and it looked like she was debating whether to ask Mal to repeat what she had just said. Mal shrugged her shoulders, giving her the same bored but mischievous look she permanently had on in remedial goodness and Fairy Godmother wisely decided to leave it, moving on to the next point of discussion._

_“And what can history teach us?”_

_“What the right thing to do is.” A student stated. “If what happened resulted in a better life for people, then we know it was the right thing to do.”_

_“Ok, no.” Evie muttered, putting her hand in the air._

_Fairy Godmother almost seemed to topple over in surprise and excitement when she saw a hand rise from the VK table, eagerly calling upon Evie to make her point._

_“While the level of ignorance at this school is somehow simultaneously unsurprising and alarming, claiming something was ‘the right thing to do’ just because a king said it was is a joke. Have you never heard that history is written by the victors?”She said cooly, looking at the back of the student’s head who spoke, the girl too timid to turn around and face Evie._

_“That’s an excellent point you raise, Evie.” Fairy Godmother praised. “However we shall do our best to make it next time without offending anyone in the process. Can anyone tell me what the saying ‘history is written by the victors’ is trying to tell us?”_

_The class was silent, and after a long pause Mal rolled her eyes, speaking up. “It means you need to get your heads out of your asses and realise that just because the King says something, it doesn’t mean it’s true or right. Shockingly, there’s more in the world than your little four walled schools and castles.”_

_Mal’s choice of words, however tame for Auradon ears, still got a reaction out of most of the class. The VKs sniggered and the rest of the Auradonian kids reacted in a mix of gasps and anticipation._

_Fairy Godmother was again, flustered. She was over the moon that Mal had decided to contribute to class discussion, but was none too impressed by her choice in language. “Mal, I would implore you to remember that that kind of language does not belong in Auradon Prep. Nevertheless, the essence of your point has merit.”_

_“Fairy Godmother, what are you saying?” Audrey complained, throwing her hand up. “King Adam and his Council are the ones who have kept peace in Auradon for 20 years. How can their decisions during that time be wrong if no one has been hurt?”_

_“Tell that to our scars and bruises.” Carlos muttered to the table darkly, speaking low._

_“Another valid point, Audrey. However, what I hope we will learn is that the best historians are always critical thinkers. So let us remember to not become complacent!”_

_“Fuck, this is priceless.” Mal laughed in genuine disbelief, knowing that Fairy Godmother would have been involved in the creation of the Isle all those years back, and judging by her comments to them, had a_ pretty _good inkling to the conditions they were raised in._

_“You couldn’t dream this cotton-candy ignorance up on the Isle.” Jay said._

_“It’s clear_ some _people are just bitter about the way history turned out. Your parents lost, ours won. Get over it.” Chad sneered._

_“Alright Charming, step off your high horse.” Mal snickered, rolling her eyes as she continued to speak with a disinterested but cutting tone. “You weren’t even born then.”_

_“Well neither were you! You think just like your parents did. In fact, I’m surprised your parents didn’t have more children, just so they could raise an evil army of their own. You’re evil, just like them. Just like they raised you to be.”_

_“Aw, thank you!”_

_“Audrey!”_

_Mal spoke sarcastically sweetly and Fairy Godmother scolded Audrey at the same time. Before Fairy Godmother could regain control of the situation, Mal was speaking again._

_“I will tell you though, Sleeping Beauty Jr, that our parents don’t need an army of children. If you want to control something for a purpose, you just need the one. If you want to brainwash, you just need the one. If you want to force beliefs down someone’s throat and turn them into a puppet just to fulfil your wishes, you just need the one.” Mal said, growing angrier by the second. When she realised she had probably revealed too much about their torrid relationship with their parents, she changed tacts, wanting to take the focus away from their weaknesses. “You know what that sounds like?Do you want to know who else was raised learning only what people wanted him to hear? Your very own soon-to-be King Ben!”_

_Mal knew she had done her job when the entire class was up in arms about this comment, everyone but the VKs wanting to jump straight to the royal family’s defence. In a way, this just proved the VK’s point. They were so blinded by what they had grown up with hearing that any challenge led straight to outrage._

_“That is quite enough!” Fairy Godmother said, trying to silence the room. It was, however, to no avail. The VKs sat cooly at the back, relishing in the commotion they had created, reminding them of their rampages through the market place back on the Isle. They had done enough for the day, more than willing to slip straight out the door when the bell rang only a few seconds later, leaving the classroom still full of offended Auradonians behind them._

_—————_

So it was decided, and instead of attending history class, the VKs milled about that afternoon and into the evening. They were beginning to think about heading to the boys’ room for dinner when a knock sounded on the door.

On reflex, their heads all turned rapidly to the door and then to each other as they moved closer together. Evie stopped sewing and came to stand by the bed, Carlos stayed sitting at the foot of it and Jay and Mal stood in front. 

“Yes?” Mal called out.

“Uh…hi! It’s Ben.” The visitor replied through the closed door, and upon hearing Ben’s voice, all four VKs relaxed somewhat. Mal flicked the door open with her wrist.

Ben seemed startled as the door opened, especially as Mal was not standing right in front of it, but a few feet back in the room. It seemed to take him a while to remember that she had magical powers.

“That always surprises me.”

The corners of Mal’s lips quirked up ever so slightly at his statement. When he didn’t carry on, she spoke up. “Is there something you need? Or did you just come to see doors magically open in front of you?”

“No, no. I do have a reason, of course - although the magic is great. It’s ah, it’s just that Fairy Godmother mentioned none of you were in attendance at your history lesson today. She was concerned that something had happened. So I volunteered to check on you all.”

“Well, something did actually happen.” Mal started, making everyone, even the VKs, turn their heads to her. “What happened was, we realised we would rather claw our own eyes out than sit through that class again, so we just didn’t go.”

The VKs let out a snort of laughter, especially more so at Ben’s face upon hearing that. It took him a while to get his thoughts together to put a sentence out, but he was already on the back foot, and it would be hard to catch up. “I sympathise with some classes being…tedious, really I do. But unfortunately it’s a requirement of attendance here that unless for a legitimate reason, students are expected to be in class.”

“I’d say this was a legitimate reason. Call it _self-care_ if it makes you feel better, Ben.”

“Fairy Godmother isn’t going to be impressed when she hears about this.” 

Mal looked around. “Who’s going to tell her?”

“I presume that means you won’t be.”

“Although it may seem like we live to disappoint Fairy Godmother, no, we won’t be ratting ourselves out. So the only way I can see her finding out is if you tell her.”

“It’s unfair to put me in that position, Mal.”

“Well, you were the one who volunteered to come here.”

Mal’s unbreakable rebuttals had silenced Ben, who was still standing outside the room, having never entered even when the door was opened for him. The VKs looked at each other, all clearly experiencing the same displeasure that their movements were being monitored so much.

“Look, Ben. Tell her, don’t tell her, either way she’s going to give us a lecture tomorrow in remedial goodness about it. We know what we’re doing. We appreciate you checking in, but we’re good.” Carlos spoke up, trying to put an end to the matter. “And we know where to find you if we need anything.” He added, seeing Ben’s mouth open as if to offer his services as a parting gift.

Ben clasped his hands together, a somewhat smile coming onto his face as he saw he had been rightfully excused from the encounter. “Well, for the record, I am glad you’re all ok and that my offers of help have clearly sunken in. Have a great rest of your night, dinner is soon in the dining hall, it would be great to see you down there with everyone!”

The VKs put on their best ‘smile so they leave’ faces and Mal was flicking the door shut and locked again barely seconds after Ben made the slightest movement to leave.

“Not likely.” She said.

Jay nodded in agreement. “They really know how to put a damper on things don’t they?”

“Bonus points for whoever can come up with the best excuse to Fairy Godmother tomorrow.” Evie said, laughing as all their facial expressions turned to ones of challenge, wanting to beat each other.

—————

As it turned out to no one’s surprise, they did get the chance to compete against each other the next day. As soon as they had sat down in the remedial goodness, Fairy Godmother had started on her clearly preprepared speech about the importance of being reliable and punctual students. Her words were like water off a duck’s back to the VKs, and the only time she managed to get some sort of reaction out of their normally stoic poker faces was when she said that Ben had told her the truth, as he hoped his actions of being honest would demonstrate its importance to them. They thought that was hilarious.

“It’s clear you don’t take this seriously.” Fairy Godmother said, cutting her lecture short when she saw she was getting nowhere.

“While it’s _super_ to see that the problems you have to face here are so minuscule that you have apparently all the time in the world to focus on our actions, it was just one class. A class, I feel we didn’t need to attend anyway, because we have first hand experience with the subject matter.”

“Mal, that’s even more reason for you to attend. Of course as they were your mother’s artefacts you know a lot about them. You all could have been such a valuable help to the rest of the class.”

“They _are_ her artefacts, not were.”

“Well, that’s not entirely true. If you were in attendance at class yesterday, you would have heard me say that along with the…banishment to the Isle of the Lost, all its inhabitants were to relinquish their ownership of their magical items. They belong to the Royal Historical Society of Auradon, now.”

“Sounds convenient for them. I’m not sure everyone is super on board that that idea of ownership. But I suppose when you’re in charge, you don’t have to care about that.”

  
Fairy Godmother pursed her lips, letting the silence sit before choosing to speak again. “As you may be aware, not all of the magical items were handed over before the Isle was sealed. As such, for our next history class tomorrow we will be taking a field trip to the Museum of Cultural History, to study more closely the items in Auradon’s possession, and those that are missing.”

Evie subconsciously tightened her grip on the magic mirror in her pocket, knowing for sure that was one Auradon would love to get their hands on. At the same time, she and the other VKs tensed in their seats, remembering the last visit they paid to the Museum in the dead of night, and the encounter they had with their parents in statue form. The nightmares had plagued them after that, Mal especially. None of them were about to put themselves back in the position of going there again.

“We don’t really do, ‘field trips’.” Jay said. “But you guys have fun.”

“Unfortunately, children, this is not optional. As I can now be confident you are all aware of the strict attendance policy, I’m afraid I will have to start taking action if you continue to fail showing up to class.”

Mal steeled herself, sending a hardened look at the threat Fairy Godmother had just cheerily bubbled out to them. “Such as?”

Of course, the last thing Fairy Godmother actually wanted to do was punish them in any way that would cause them to retreat further into themselves. Despite the negative tones, she actually regarded this lesson as their most successful yet, purely based on how much they were discussing with her, and how long their sentences were. It was a miracle leap from the one worded blunt replies she was used to getting. 

“Well, typically if we are concerned that certain students are negatively influencing others, the first course of action is to separate them.”

The VKs had good poker faces, but they weren’t _that_ good. Fairy Godmother was watching their reactions closely, and though they were subtle, they were there. Despite even spelling out what she meant by separated (and in actual reality it was an empty threat), she knew the kids valued each other more than anything, and if something was going to get in the way of that, they would find another way around it. Their stubbornness seemed to dissipate ever so slightly when they realised they wouldn’t be able to argue their way out of it, and although neither of them stated out loud that they agreed to go, they didn’t disagree, and Fairy Godmother would take that victory to the bank.

—————

“Are you anxious about the museum today?”

Mal stopped the movements of her hand through Evie’s hair for a few seconds before starting again. Her reply came out in a low murmur through the morning air of their dorm. “If I said no would you believe me?”

“No.”

“I am anxious. Not just for me, but for all of us. You know what it was like the last time we were in there when we saw our parents.”

“I basically had to drag you out of there.”

“Auradon is making us weak, Eves. Look at us. We’re too scared to go to a museum to see a fucking statue of our parents, when we’re going to have to go back to the Isle and face them eventually with or without the wand.”

“Don’t even say without the wand. My mother’s reaction to that is something I would rather not think about.”

“Right? They’re so cagey from being on the Isle for so many years. If we fail, Mother will probably take it as a bigger offence than her non-invite to the christening.”

Evie laughed softly, lifting her head off Mal’s chest where it lay. She leaned her elbow on the bed, allowing herself to come up to meet Mal’s eyes. “Let’s just worry about that when we absolutely have to.” She said, pressing her lips to Mal’s softly. “We can go to the museum today, avoid that room altogether, and get Fairy Godmother off our backs for a bit.”

“She really doesn’t give up, does she?”

“Not really. But it’s fun to see her try.” Evie said with a sparkle in her eye, kissing Mal once more before rolling out of bed.

“Evie, no. I hate it when you do that.”

“What? Get out of bed?”

“Yes.”

Evie rolled her eyes fondly at Mal who was still laying in the bed, a pitiful hand extended out to her. “I don’t really know why everyone calls me a princess. You’re the biggest princess I’ve ever met.” She said, taking Mal’s hand and pressing a kiss to it’s palm.

“You’re an ass.”

“Yeah, but you love this ass!” Evie laughed as she walked away, into the bathroom. “Carlos and Jay will be here with breakfast soon, don’t make me come back there and get you.”

“Tempting. I’ll be here waiting for you.”

“Mal!”

—————

The Museum of Cultural History in day time was…surprisingly uneventful, actually. Without the nighttime eeriness and the adrenaline of potentially getting their hands on the wand that came with their last visit, none of the VKs fears about coming back had resurfaced as of yet. In fact, their trip had even contained a positive, when Mal got to see Audrey squirm at the sight of Maleficent’s spinning wheel. 

Fairy Godmother led the class around, stopping at each important piece and explaining it. The VKs lagged behind, Mal and Evie holding hands and Carlos and Jay bumping shoulders, listening when they felt like it. Now that they could take their time with being in the museum, it was astounding just how many artefacts this place held. If the people on the Isle could see this place, it would be a riot. There were the most famous of items from every story they could think of - Beast’s rose, Triton’s trident, Cinderella’s glass slipper. Just being in the presence of things that they could use for their advantage, or sell for all the riches in the world made them giddy. Carlos wondered if he would have to take to holding Jay’s hand, just to stop the agitated boy from reaching out and stealing something from a stand. 

“Now, this room may seem empty, but it’s actually one of the most important in the entire museum. Can anyone tell me why?”

One look around the room and the VKs knew the answer. It was full of empty glass cabinets, with only titles and information about the objects. What they were missing, were the objects themselves. They could see one for Maleficent’s sceptre, the Evil Queen’s magic mirror, Ursula’s necklace. They were all relieved that Evie had the foresight to leave the magic mirror hidden back in her room. It was too risky to pull it out in a place that wanted to claim it as their own. 

“There’s no artefacts here.” A student answered, looking at the cabinets closer. “Maleficent’s sceptre, the one we learnt about in class the other day, it’s not safely held in Auradon?”

“No, it’s not. Its current whereabouts are unknown, but there is every strong reason to believe that they are with their previous owners on the Isle of the Lost.” Fairy Godmother answered, resulting in gasps of intrigue, shock and fear from the Auradon students. Immediately, all heads turned to the VKs standing at the back of the room, who stared back at all of them. It wouldn't have mattered if they told them the artefacts were on the Isle. It’s not like they would go and get them, and they’re useless under the barrier anyway. But, if this was something the VKs could hold over Auradon, they weren’t going to let that chance slip.

Mal let out a shrug, resulting in many student’s narrowing their eyes, not buying her act. 

“You’re telling me, that you, the daughter of Maleficent, and you, the daughter of the Evil Queen, don’t know where their most prized possessions are?” Chad sneered.

“Wrong, Chad. My Mother’s most prized possession is that black jackass bird of hers, Diablo. There’s no space for him here but what I wouldn’t give to see him stuffed in a glass cabinet forever…” Mal trailed off, genuine in her desire to see the most incessantly irritating bird on the planet never annoy her again.

“Irregardless, even if the items do rest in the Isle of the Lost, the magical barrier surrounding it results in them being made redundant.” Fairy Godmother said. “They possess no power, and no ability to hurt anyone.”

“Wrong again.” Mal whispered, feeling Evie press closer into her in comfort. They all knew that what Maleficent’s sceptre lacked in magical ability, it made up for by being a very hard stick that hurt like hell to be whacked with.

—————

If Mal believed in the universe watching out for people, she would have thanked every higher power when a few hours later, Fairy Godmother said they were free to roam the museum individually for the rest of the day. They had somehow managed to avoid going into the ‘Hall of Villains’, and the VKs were starting to think they could leave from this trip relatively unscathed, without having to be reminded of the overbearing paranoia that came from their parents presence. 

That might have been the case, if it wasn’t for classmates such as Audrey and Chad, who seemed to either have no regard for who overheard their obscenely loud conversation, or were deliberately trying to get under the VK’s skin. Not being keen to do anymore learning than necessary, Mal and Evie had been sitting on a bench in one of the main rooms for the last hour or so, watching people roam about. Carlos and Jay had taken to exploring other areas, mostly at Carlos’s insistence that Jay let out some energy before he combusted from not being able to pocket any of the items.

“The villain statues should have come with miniature platforms so their kids can stand next to them, seeing as they’re so proud of their evil acts.”

Mal rolled her eyes as she heard Audrey’s comment and murmured to Evie. “Why would she even go in that room? It should be her worst nightmare to see a statute of Mother.” 

“Probably some sick satisfaction of knowing that we’re all locked up on the Isle, so they don’t actually have any reason to be afraid.”

“If you ask me, they shouldn’t even have a room of their own. Why waste valuable space on people like that.” Chad said in an over the top declaratory manner.

Before Mal could think up another reply to mutter under her breath, she and Evie saw Carlos and Jay walking back into the hall up to them, at a rather rushed pace. They would have been concerned, had it not been for the excited looks they were both doing a terrible job of hiding on their faces.

“What is it?” Evie asked as soon as they sat down next to them on the bench.

“So we found ourselves back at Fairy Godmother’s wand stand.” Carlos started in a low whisper, determined to not let anyone overhear them. “We didn’t touch it, it’s still there. But it’s what we overheard that is the big news.”

“These people were at the exhibit, talking about the wand when they mentioned the coronation coming up. And they just happened to be discussing the fact that the wand gets brought out of its shielded exhibit for the coronation, to bless Ben.”  
  
“What?” Mal said in response to Jay’s words, even though she had heard him perfectly. “Are you sure?”

“Absolutely.” Carlos confirmed. “Coronations are the only time the wand is ever used now, and do you know how often those come around?”

“Once in a generation. Holy shit! This is our chance.” Mal whispered excitedly, seeing the other VK’s eyes light up in front of her as well. “We have to plan this, now.”

“We will, as soon as we get back to the security of the room. Come on, it looks like we’re heading out now anyway.” Evie flicked her head to the exit as they saw other students from their class gathering around it. They followed suit, walking with a renewed energy to the door.

“Who knew that coming here would lead to such invaluable revelations.” Mal said aloud, and out of the blue, Fairy Godmother appeared in front of them with a beaming smile on her face.

“It brings me so much joy to hear you saying that, Mal. I’m so pleased you all attended this trip and have allowed your minds to learn. You have clearly taken something away from it.”

The VK’s had to forcefully hold down the smirks that so desperately wanted to appear on their faces. If only she knew what she was actually saying. Instead, they just nodded, with Mal giving her a mock salute.

“Oh, Fairy Godmother. We’ve taken away more than you could know.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I always wondered what classes would be like for the VKs, especially when personal subject matter was brought up in the lesson. This was just one way I pictured it happening, I'm sure there are many others to write about. It was also a good way to write in them finding out about the wand at coronation, just because I didn't want to write an Evie/Chad scene like in the movie. 
> 
> Appreciate you all for reading, thanks so much for all the kudos and comments! I love writing these little one shots so if you want to see something in particular written, let me know!


	5. Approval

In a way, it had been the moment Mal had always dreamed of. 

Growing up on the Isle, it at times felt like she lived and breathed for her mother’s approval. Every move she made revolved around her. She was a scrappy kid. She bit and grouched and fought and swore and terrorised. She tried, _evil_ did she try. But it was never good enough. It would never be good enough.

Over the years with the help of Evie, Carlos and Jay, Mal began to try to learn to live with the knowledge that her mother would never quite accept her. She tried to imagine being ok with that. With time, it did feel like she was making progress. But then one day her mother appeared to the four of them in the street, looking more alive than Mal had seen her in years. The prospect of revenge shone through her aged emerald eyes as she instructed the VKs of their new task at Auradon Prep. Beneath the scowl of Mal’s initial response, the young girl felt her insides warm with the responsibility her mother had placed on her, and with the imagination of the future where she would be embraced by her in her success, finally deemed worthy.

It was like all the years of trying to forget her mother’s approval vanished in seconds when Maleficent promised their future together, citing it was all about the two of them. Mal tried to put up a fight, but deep down she knew that her heart desired the acceptance. And if she had to carry out this plan for Maleficent to see her as someone to be proud of? So be it.

That was how Mal found herself with Maleficent, standing on the balcony of her castle, overlooking the waters separating the Isle from Auradon. Mal had tried to not be daunted by Maleficent’s overwhelming statement of the free world resting on her shoulders, and to not ruin the plan. She thought that’s all she would be left with, which would seem like a typical Maleficent goodbye. But then her mother turned to her, and said words which Mal had only ever heard in her dreams.

“You know, Mal. I wouldn’t just entrust this task to anyone. This is something that will change the course of history. A chance for all of us stuck on this wretched Isle to rewrite the wrongs that have been made against us. To extract revenge from those Auradonian fools. And there is only one person I know who can do it. And that is you.”

Mal was shocked so still, too afraid to open her mouth and respond for fear of cutting Maleficent off in her praise. Instead she just nodded, and hoped the dumbstruck feeling inside of her wasn’t blatantly showing on her face.

“Do you know why I know you’re going to pull this off? You’re going to do it for me, because I have given you this task, and because you want nothing more than to prove yourself, isn’t that right?”

Mal didn’t even have time to process what Maleficent was saying, or realise how much her mother apparently knew about her inner most desires. “Yes, Mother.”

“This is finally your chance to show me that you have learnt how to be me. That all my years haven’t gone to waste with you. That you aren’t pathetic, or weak, or blinded by whatever it is you see in those two idiotic boys and your obsession with blue beauty. This task is your only priority. I know you won’t disappoint me.”

“Never, Mother.”

Down below, Mal could see the monstrously long car that had arrived to take them, with Jay circling it, Carlos running to it, and Evie standing at the door of it. As if she knew Mal was watching, Evie looked up and met her eyes, shooting her a smile. Mal quickly smiled back, unable to stop the blush creeping onto her cheeks that happened anytime her girlfriend was around, and she furiously tried to hide it before turning back to Maleficent, determined to not prove her right.

“To show how much I believe you are ready for this, Mal, this now belongs to you.” Maleficent said, commanding Mal’s attention back to her as she slipped off the ring on her thumb and held it in front of Mal’s eyes. 

It was a deep amethyst tear drop shaped ring that Mal had never seen Maleficent without. In fact, she had never seen it this close up. She could now see the proper colour of the stone, and the two golden dragons that encircled it. She tried not to get excited, imagining how those two dragons could represent her mother and herself, if Maleficent was giving it to her. 

“This was from one of my first conquests. It now represents yours.” Maleficent carried on, and just as Mal reached up to take it, she pulled it back with a tsk. “The free world, Mal. On your shoulders. Don’t take this ring if you don’t understand what that means.”

Mal knew she didn’t have another option but to accept, but frankly she was so excited by this act of warmth (at least as warm as Maleficent could be) that she wouldn’t have done anything but say yes. She nodded with earnest, trying to avoid her mother’s eyes in order not to be subjected to their emerald hold, and let out a breath she didn’t know she was holding when Maleficent eventually placed the ring in her palm.

Slipping on the thumb ring and looking up to see Maleficent’s wicked smirk both made Mal giddy with anticipation and also suddenly crushed by the severe weight of the task ahead of her. If she couldn’t pull this off she could kiss the dream of her mother’s acceptance goodbye. But if she could? Oh, the things that would come to her if she could, made all the anxiety worth it. She clasped her hand into a fist, and when she moved her thumb she felt the ring slide off it slightly. 

Great, it was just that much too big for her, another reminder of how she wasn’t up to Maleficent’s level yet. 

She bent her thumb to stop the ring falling off, protectively tucking it inside her closed fist. She let the feel of the ring guide her down into the car, determined to take up her destiny.

—————

Mal had trouble sleeping their first night in Auradon. In reality, all the VKs did, but Mal was awake for a very specific reason. Their failed attempt at stealing the wand just hours before was haunting her. She was so close to fulfilling the plan that she had let her head get away from herself, so the crush of the defeat felt colossal. The sinking realisation that there would be no easy way to remove the wand from its protections was also beginning to feel colossal, the more her mind spiralled with her thoughts. It was like she could feel Maleficent breathing down her neck, disappointed gaze and utterances of worthlessness on her tongue. She wouldn’t let that be her future. But what could she do?

“M, take a breath. I can hear your mind going a mile a minute.” Evie’s whisper pierced the night, somewhat shocking Mal out of her thoughts. She realised her hand that had been trailing through Evie’s hair had stopped on the top of her blue head, now curled into a fist so tight that the tip of the tear dropped ring was denting her skin. Evie lifted her head from Mal’s chest and took her hand in her own, unclasping her fist and placing a soft kiss to the palm where a mark had been made. 

“I thought you were asleep.”

“You can’t really sleep in a place like this. It’s too quiet.”

Mal laughed. “Yeah. None of that Isle chaos to keep us awake.”

“I kind of miss it.”

“We’ll be back soon. Well, if we ever figure out how to get that damn wand.”

“We will, Mal. We’ll all work on it together. This was only one plan, one attempt. Besides, when have any of our plans on the Isle actually worked the way they were supposed to? We’re the masters of improvising. We’ll get the wand.”  
  
“We better.” Mal said, staring down as she watched the slightly too big ring wriggle around her thumb.

Evie followed her gaze as well, and stared at the ring herself for the first time. It was beautiful, there was no denying it. It complemented Mal’s look completely. Evie just never thought she would see it on her, the way Maleficent appeared so attached to it. She took Mal’s hand in her own, squeezing it gently in order for Mal’s attention to move from the ring to her face. “I saw you talking to her before we left. Is that when she gave the ring to you?”

“Yeah. She said it was from one of her first conquests. And…and that she believed in me.”

“That’s really special, Mal. What else did she say?”

Mal tried to appear nonchalant, even though Evie could see how much of a big deal this was to her. “Oh you know, the usual. Putting pressure on me, bagging the three of you, talking about how amazing she is.”

“But also praising you.”

This time Mal couldn’t keep the smile off her face. “She said there was no one else she would entrust with this job. Eves, this is my chance to prove myself. To show her I’m not worthless or weak - ” Mal stopped when the frown appeared on Evie’s face, her mouth opening to disagree. Mal knew that, because they had had this discussion a million times. “I know what you want to say. But it’s just…different with her. And don’t start me on what we do or don’t do to please our mothers. You know that ache just as well as I do.”  
  
Evie’s mouth closed, a sad kind of acceptance crossing her features as she nodded. For anyone else, talking about this subject would never be a consideration. But there was nothing the two didn’t tell each other, they knew each other more than they knew themselves. It was pointless to try and deny their feelings by lying. Evie leaned into Mal’s touch when she cupped her cheek, settling back down on her chest as she listened to her talk.

“But when we get the wand, Eves? All of that disappears. All of those yearning feelings, all of those years of disappointment. We will be the reason our parents are free from their prison. All of their happiness will stem back to us. It’ll all be worth it. This ring symbolises that future. And we won’t fail.” She said into the night air, closing her thumb protectively inside her fist again as she waited for sleep to overcome her.

—————

Over her first few weeks at Auradon Prep Mal, along with the other VKs, became known for a lot of things. People knew not to expect them at the dining hall, people knew if they valued their lives they shouldn’t touch any of them, and everyone knew they were stealing things but no one ever caught them. 

Mal was also known to always walk around with a clenched fist, specifically, her left fist. Carlos joked it was because Mal needed one hand to punch people, and the other to hold Evie’s hand. But he and the others knew Mal’s clenched fist was actually a thing born out of habit ever since Maleficent had handed her the ring upon their departure from the Isle. It was her way of protecting it, of feeling it pressing against her skin every day so she would never forget the task her mother entrusted her with.

Mal had gotten so used to feeling the ring that it was like it was a part of her. And she truly did feel like it was like her mother was there with her, reminding her not to be a screw up. So one day when she realised it was gone? Well, Hades’ Underworld would have been a kinder fate.

—————

The sight was almost comical, if it didn’t first make the Auradonian students panic with apprehension. They were still getting used to the VKs, so seeing commotion attached to their actions could never be good. Barrelling down the corridors was a blur of white, black and red. The VK who made the least amount of noise was now trampling over anyone and anything in his path to reach some unknown end. It wasn’t until he came across a class that had just ended, students piling into the hallways, when he opened his mouth.

“Evie! Evie!”

The sound of Carlos’ panicked yells had Evie’s head turning immediately, along with everyone else. The difference between Evie and everyone else, though, was that she quickly made her way to meet the panting boy, while all the other students scampered away.

“Carlos, what happened?” On instinct Evie placed a hand on his chin, turning his face to inspect it for injuries.

“It’s not me, I’m not hurt.” Carlos tried to catch his breath. “It’s Mal.”

The colour must have drained from Evie’s face immediately, because Carlos instantly rushed to keep talking. “She’s not hurt! She’s ok. Well, she’s kind of ok.”

“Explain.”

“It’s her ring. The one from Maleficent. It’s gone.”

“Oh evil.” Evie placed her arm on Carlos’ shoulder and turned him, silently telling him to lead her back to where he came from. “She’s pissed?”

“So pissed.”

“Who has she maimed?”

“Luckily for these butterflies, no one. Yet.” Carlos said as he and Evie continued to speedily walk through the corridors. “Jay’s with her. I left him to control her if things got sticky so I could find you.”

“Why do I know things are going to get out of hand.”

“Because it’s Mal.” Carlos replied, causing Evie to nod knowingly. “And because Chad’s down at the fields too. The tourney team was practicing.”  
  
“Great. Just what we need.”

Carlos and Evie heard Mal before they saw her, but when they did see her, what a sight it was. Mal was shouting insults at Chad at the top of her lungs, and he would have been a dead man had it not been for Jay literally holding Mal back. Both of his arms were wrapped around her waist, and he basically had to lift her right off the ground to stop her proceeding. It wasn’t for a lack of trying on Mal’s part either, she might have been half Jay’s size but she knew how to fight. 

  
Chad, on the other hand, looked like Mal had actually attacked him. He was cowering behind some other members of the tourney team, who were slowly edging away as a group, all as scared as each other. 

“I know you took it you stuck up, snot-faced bastard!” Mal yelled, her eyes burning a bright shade of emerald as they pierced into Chad’s face.

Chad’s face somehow paled and became red with anger all at the same time. “Listen you freak, I don’t know what you’re talking about! I didn’t take anything.”

This only enraged Mal further. “Give it back to me or you’ll find out how we settle disagreements on the Isle real quick.” 

  
At this, Evie and Carlos sped up their walk into a run. As much as they would have loved to see Mal sock Chad in the face, they knew they were skating on thin ice. Now that Fairy Godmother had revealed she wasn’t above splitting them up if they continued to misbehave, they couldn’t publicly cause too much drama. This was exactly the reason Jay hadn’t let Mal at Chad, because of all of them, Jay was the one who most wanted to see Chad get punched.

Not only this, but Evie was worried that Mal’s anger would accidentally (or purposefully) unleash her magic and set Chad’s hair alight. Not that that was an entirely unpleasant thought but. Not the time. 

“Oh thank fuck.” They heard Jay exclaim when he saw them approaching. As soon as Evie was in touching distance of Mal, he let her go. Before Mal could take off anywhere near Chad though, Evie wrapped one arm right around Mal’s front, incapacitating her arms and all, and pulled her away from Chad so she was facing her. Her other hand came up to the back of Mal’s neck, gripping it firmly in order to have the Mal’s attention on her.

“Hey, hey. Stop now. It’s me.”

Evie’s effect on Mal was like a tranquilliser, she stopped yelling and thrashing about almost instantly. After too many situations on the Isle where Mal was impossible to calm down, Evie had learnt that by pulling the girl flush against her and giving her something firm to hold her steady, Mal stopped resisting immediately. It helped that Evie also knew Mal fell into a daze whenever she was around, especially when she was close enough to smell her perfume.

“We’re leaving these morons. Whatever it is we’ll figure it out, ok? But you’re no good this pent up.” She murmured, looking into Mal’s eyes, watching as they slowly lost their fiery burn.

Mal nodded, bringing her hand up to clasp onto Evie’s. Her demeanour had just 180’d so fast it made the whole tourney team dizzy. The VKs were about to walk away without a second glance back, when Chad had to open his mouth one more time.

  
“That’s right, go cry to your girlfriend. The big bad Mal has to be protected by a dumb wannabe princess.”

Evie didn’t even have time to be offended, because as soon as the words had left Chad’s mouth, Mal ripped her hand out of hers, and they immediately became set alight with green fire.

“You don’t ever talk about her like that! You’re dead, Charming!” 

It was chaos. Evie yelled for Mal and tried to grab her, but all she could reach was the back of her jacket, which she gripped to for dear life in order to stop Mal murdering Chad. Chad, screamed. Legitimately screamed. He and the rest of the tourney team took off sprinting just as Ben came out of the gear sheds, confusion apparent on his face. This slowly morphed into concern when he saw the flames in Mal’s hand and he started to head to the VKs, but with all of his team mates screaming bloody murder running in the other direction, his instincts lead him to them.

“Mal, stop! Cut the flames.” Jay said, pulling on Mal’s sleeve.

“Let me at him! I swear he’s dead.”

Carlos made a split second drastic decision to stop Mal’s rage. “Mal, I’m about to grab your hand so please stop!” He said, already wincing with his eyes shut as he brought his hand onto Mal’s, intertwining their fingers.

Mal barely had time to react, but luckily she processed what Carlos was saying with a split second to spare and the flames dissipated from her hands, leaving Carlos’ hand unburnt in her own.

“Carlos, what the hell! I could have hurt you.” Mal hissed out, although she didn’t let go of his hand, and in fact squeezed it tighter, letting his hold ground her.

“Yeah in hindsight that was really stupid of me. But hey! You didn’t. Way to be a friend.” He said in a joking tone, trying to lighten the mood but quickly realising it wasn’t the time or the place. 

“Ok, now that no one is on fire, someone explain what happened here. From the beginning.” Evie placed her hands on her hips, eyebrow lifted expectantly. 

“Charming stole my ring, so now I’m going to have to kill him.” Mal’s eyes flashed green again, and Evie growled under her breath.

A snort of laughter left Jay before he could stop it, and he tried to wipe the grin off his face when Evie stared at him. “Sorry. It was just a nice thing to imagine happening. But right, yes, what happened.”

Carlos rolled his eyes and began speaking. “We had free period so we were down here playing fetch with Dude and feeding him treats. The tourney team was practicing on the other side of the field, but one of their sticks was lying around, so Mal picked it up and started using it to hit the ball to Dude.”

  
“That shit went flying by the way, you’ve got a great arm, Mal.” Jay said, managing to get a quirk of the lips from Mal.

“Yeah, Dude was loving it. He kept bounding back over to Mal and jumping in her arms until she flung the ball again. It helped she kept feeding him treats too.”

Evie would have smiled at Carlos’ recount of the day if her mood wasn’t plummeting the more she looked at her girlfriend’s downtrodden face.

“Anyways, Chad noticed what she was doing, and like the kill joy he is, he immediately came running over, trying to pull the stick out of Mal’s hands. Of course, she didn’t let it go without a struggle, and they were in this weird tug of war situation until Chad basically grabbed her hand and ripped the stick clean off her. I was pretty sure Mal was about to deck him then and there, but that’s when she realised that her ring was gone.”

“He took your ring off your thumb when he pulled the stick?” Evie asked.

“He has to have. It’s when I noticed it was missing and…and it was always a little loose, you know? So it could have easily come off with his hand.” 

Evie nodded with a soft understanding, knowing that Mal didn’t like admitting that something of Maleficent’s didn’t fit her properly yet. 

“So that’s why he’s dead.”

“Seems fair.”

Mal whipped her head up to Evie’s face at her reply. “What, you’re not going to try and stop me?”

Evie shrugged. “He stole your ring. I know how much it meant to you.”

“The less arrogant assholes here the better.” Jay said in agreement.

Carlos laughed nervously, his hand still tightly grasped to Mal’s. “No one is killing anyone until we get the wand.”

“You better not let go of my hand then, because if I see him I won’t be held accountable for my actions.”

Before Carlos could respond, Jay let out an annoyed grumble and everyone looked in his direction to see Ben bounding towards them. “Looks like we’re going to be held accountable for something.”

“Of course he’s here, fucking hell. I bet Fairy Godmother will show up next. Evil I hate this place.” Mal grumbled, leaning her head back onto Evie’s chest when she felt her girlfriend step closer behind her.

“Don’t say that too loud or she will.” Evie murmured just as Ben arrived, pressing a kiss to the back of Mal’s head.

“Is everyone alright? What happened? How did you do that with your hands?”

“Cool it with the third degree, Ben. You’ll make yourself faint.” Jay said, his attention half focussed on the tourney team who were slowly disappearing back to the main school campus.

“Right, sorry.” Ben said awkwardly, running his hand through the back of his hair. “It’s just that Chad was basically hysterical back there and I couldn’t make out properly what had happened.”

Mal scoffed. “I’ll give him something to be hysterical about.”

“I’d really like to help, if I can. If you’d let me.” Ben’s hopeful face looked at all four of them, but he quickly realised he wasn’t going to find a positive response. Jay had basically lost focus altogether, his eyes zeroing in on the tourney team’s retreating forms. Evie had a concerned gaze tracked on Mal’s every movement and Mal stared at the ground like she was about to light it on fire. Ben’s desperate eyes finished on Carlos, who only met him with a shrug, lips sealed tightly.

“It’s just, I know Fairy Godmother will hear about this. With the way Chad was going on, and all. If you talk to me I could be prepared, you know, to help out when Fairy Godmother wants to talk.”

This pipped Carlos’s attention enough to warrant a response to Ben. “And they say villains are the only ones who play dirty.”

“Look, Ben, it’s simple. Chad stole something of mine, and for that, he’s going to pay.”

“Mal, are you sure? Stealing is strongly discouraged in Auradon, Chad knows that.”

At hearing this response, Mal seemed past the point of anger, and she actually just laughed and walked off. “Well hooray, Ben. I guess we’ve solved that. See you ‘round.”

All four VKs ignored Ben’s calls out for them as they stalked back to the main campus. Carlos wasn’t going to mention to Mal how hard she was squeezing his hand, or how he thought the murderous glare in her eyes might set fire to the next thing they locked on to. He knew this was going to be the start of a long brooding period for her, and when he thought about it, he couldn’t really blame her. It’s not like he ever had a hope of Cruella bestowing something on him like Maleficent did to Mal. But if Cruella had ever shown a glimpse of hope in him, and he had lost that, he would imagine fire would be the least of his efforts to get it back.

—————

Incredibly, Evie, Jay and Carlos managed to keep Mal’s anger at bay for the rest of the evening, despite her wanting to rampage through Chad’s room destroying everything in her path. They reasoned with her that the wand was more important than the ring to Maleficent, and that setting fire to the school would probably get them further away from that goal. Getting their parents off the Isle was better than a heirloom. 

None of them ever dared to suggest that Maleficent would _forgive_ Mal for losing the ring - forgiveness wasn’t a concept that villains were on board with to say the least. And none of them could really take looking into the despondent and lost look in Mal’s eye, every time she closed her fist around her bare thumb. But, still, it was enough to keep everyone in Mal and Evie’s room for the night.

“Eves.” A voice whispered later in the dark, disrupting the stillness of the early hours of the morning. 

Evie opened her eyes, having not been able to fully fall asleep due to the days events. She squinted in the dark in an attempt to see, even though she knew it was Jay who had called out to her. “Hm?”

“Come with me, I’ll explain later.”

To some, this kind of request would have warranted a whole other set of questions, but the four implicitly trusted each other. Plus, this wasn’t the first time Evie had snuck out after hours with any or all of them, both on the Isle and in Auradon. Whether it was to complete a task or just get a snack, their late night excursions had never been seen by her as a waste of time. She quietly peeled herself out of Mal’s arms, a task harder than what was ahead of them she was sure, and was able to make out Jay standing beside her in the dark.

“Evie?”

“Jay?” 

“Damn.” Jay cursed, knowing he couldn’t really have expected to exit the room without waking the two lightest sleepers he knew.

“I’m here.” He replied to Carlos, lightly squeezing his ankle from where he stood at the foot of the bed. “Go sleep in Mal’s bed. Evie and I will be back in a bit.”

For both the reason of being half asleep and also knowing that Jay and Evie would be safe having each other’s backs in whatever they had planned, Carlos robotically got out of Evie’s bed and slipped in beside Mal, who also didn’t question anything.

“Be safe you two. And ow, C, that was my side side your bony-ass elbow just hit.” Mal’s sleepy grumble came out in the dark as she turned over to face him, eyes still closed.

Carlos pretended to gag as her movement swished her hair over his face, and he brushed it aside, tucking it behind her head. “Well your purple mop is going to strangle me in my sleep.”

“If that was true, Jay’s hair would have suffocated you long ago.”

“Wrong, he’s more delicate than you are.”

“Yeah, yeah, shut up.” Mal grumbled again, as she flung an arm around Carlos, curling her fingers in his locks. “Night, doofus.”

“Love you too, Mal.”

Evie and Jay tried not to laugh as they left the room, always amused by the arguments Mal and Carlos managed to have half asleep. It wasn’t until they were half way down the hallway that Jay quickly and quietly explained his plan to Evie.

“We’re breaking into Chad’s room.”

Evie’s eyes widened both in anticipation and amusement at the thought, nodding along to Jay as they checked the next hall for witnesses before moving on.

“You know, the whole point of stopping Mal from burning down the school before would kind of be lost if you want to go to Chad’s room and beat him up.”

“I’m not going to do that. I mean, I definitely _want_ to. But that’s not why we’re going.”

They both stopped at the bottom flight of stairs they just climbed down, entering the boys dorm level. “You think we’ll find it in there?”

Jay shrugged with a grin. “No harm in finding out. Got a pin?”

“Of course.” Evie replied, whipping a long hair pin out of her blue locks. She was about to insert it into the lock before she stopped and turned to Jay, eyebrows waggling. “Wanna bet how precious these kids lives have really been?”

“If they sleep with their doors unlocked I’m stealing everything I can get my hands on, just because I’ll be so pissed off.” Jay said, groaning in simultaneous disbelief and knowingness when Evie opened the unlocked door, slipping inside. “Of fucking course.”  


“I swear they wouldn’t last a second on the Isle. Actually, the barrier would probably sense how pathetic their survival skills were and throw them off the bridge before they got a chance to enter.”

Jay caught himself at the last second from snorting out loud at Evie’s whispered comments. All four of them were skilled in breaking and entering, but Evie and Jay had sneaking around down to an art, and they weren’t about to blow their cover with Chad and Doug, who were snoring loudly in the dark room.

“The second you hear a change in their breathing, just run. If we get separated, meet in mine and Carlos’ room, yeah?”

After getting Evie’s agreement to the plan, the two split up, letting their eyes adjust to the darkness before searching around. They had become well versed in moving around objects in without great visibility, having had to learn to sneak around and escape sticky situations many a time on the Isle. All of them felt their senses were heightened in the dark, and Evie was reminded of just how so when she got even remotely close to Chad’s tourney bag.

“ _Hades_ that is a rotten stench. My nose hasn’t hit something that awful since the last barge came to the Isle. Have fun looking through that.” She said to Jay, moving swiftly away from the bag to the other side of the room. 

The search for the ring was beginning to look fruitless, but Jay made up for that by pocketing many an interesting item both out of Chad and Doug’s possessions. Evie made her way around the room silently critiquing their fashion choices in her head, but mostly hoping that she would catch a glimmer of the precious ring Mal needed more than she would admit. 

“Holy shit Jay, let’s leave them _something_ to wake up to.” She whispered a while later when she saw how many things Jay was holding. 

“Nah. Fuck these guys. Chad especially.”

Evie held in a laugh at his bluntness, but couldn’t help agreeing. “Doug is pretty creepy too.”

“See? It all evens out.” He grinned, gesturing to the items in his hands.

“We better go, its been an hour and we didn’t find the ring.”

  
“I wish we could have, for Mal. It meant everything to her.”

Evie sighed, rubbing a tired hand over her forehead once they were out of the room and walking back down the hallway. “I know. It really crushed her. We have to work twice as hard to get the wand now or - ”

“Nope, let’s not think about the rage coming our way if we don’t.” Jay finished the conversation, opening up the door to his dorm to dump all the stolen goods. Immediately he and Evie were hounded by Dude, who had clearly missed human interaction from the past evening. 

“Hey buddy! What are you doing in here all by yourself?” Evie cooed as she picked him up, scratching behind his ears.

“He knows the food is in here. See, Dude would do well on the Isle.”

“He would.” Evie put him down on the floor when they were back in the hallway, walking towards her and Mal’s room. “Come on Dude, let’s go see Carlos and Mal!”

Dude let out an excited bark at this, and immediately Evie and Jay jumped and whipped their heads around, wondering who might have heard them. Dude, thinking it was a game, jumped up at them, barking more.

Behind them, a light flicked on under a doorway, and they both stared at each other, eyes wide.

“Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit.” Jay chanted as they picked Dude up and ran down the hall, back up the flight of stairs and towards the safety of the room. Even though they were running from the danger of being caught, they had both missed the adrenaline of a chase, and tried hard to keep their laughter from bubbling out when they closed the door behind them.

Dude ran to where Carlos and Mal lay together, and managed to find a spot to wriggle into between them. Meanwhile, Jay and Evie practically collapsed into Evie’s bed, the emotional day and late night excursion seemingly all catching up with them at once. 

“Mal better not wake up and go on an early morning rampage while we’re still sleeping.”

“It’ll be up to Carlos to stop her if she does. It’s not like we’d wake up to hear it.”

Jay groaned quietly at Evie’s comment, rolling into her side. His response was muffled by the fact that his face was smushed against her upper arm.

“What?”

“I said, Dude would have better luck stopping Mal than Carlos.” Jay repeated, lifting his head to rest on her shoulder. “Ah well. That’s a problem for future us.”

“You know, your forward thinking qualities are one of the things I love most about you.”

“That’s me, Eves. Mr Prepared.”

“Mr Prepared to steal everything in his sight, you mean.”

“Wow, that was hilarious. You should go into comedy.”

“I would, but your life is already the biggest joke out.”

Jay blurted out a laugh, turning into Evie’s shoulder to muffle it. “Ok, Uma, easy on.”

“You know I’m joking. Chad’s life is the biggest joke out.” Evie’s voice had a cheeky ring to it. “You might be like, second.”

Jay kept laughing as Evie continued the banter, eyes watering from late night deliriousness. “But like, a super close second. Don’t get complacent.” 

“That’s me, Eves. Mr Not Getting Complacent.”

Evie joined in laughing next, both of them trying and failing to keep the volume down. From the other bed, Dude let out a small yelp.

“That was Dude telling you both to shut ya traps. And I concur.”

At Carlos’ sleepy words, Evie and Jay only laughed harder, too far gone to be able to stop.

“If Dude has a problem he can come say it to my face.”

Just as Jay had finished his comment, a pillow was flung through the air with such precision and force that it could have only been done by Mal. It struck him straight in the face, and his string of curse words that followed had Carlos and Mal joining in the laughter.

“Don’t start something you can’t finish, Mal.”

“Oh I’m sorry, I thought Mr Prepared would have been able to see that coming.” Mal responded, before flinging another pillow through the darkness into his face. “And that.”

Through the laughter, Jay grabbed both pillows that had been thrown at him and put them behind his and Evie’s heads, nestling comfortably back into them. ‘Have fun sleeping with no pillows, fuckers.”

And just as he thought he’d won, yet another pillow soared through the air into his face.

“Oh come on!”

—————

It was probably a good thing that it was the weekend, because there was no way any of the VKs would have made it to their morning classes with the amount of sleeping in they all did. Still, as per usual, Mal and Carlos were the first to wake. Typically, they’d lay and enjoy the quiet morning air, but Carlos was all too aware of Mal’s tossing and turning last night.

“Did you dream about your Mom last night?”

“That obvious?”

Carlos just shrugged, and waited for Mal to continue. They were laying side by side in the bed, their low murmuring not quite piercing the lazy Saturday morning air.

“I dreamt she found out about the ring, and her reaction was…not her usual one.”

“What, like not throwing the closest household item within arms reach in your direction?”

“It was like…you know how we always used to laugh on the Isle about the punishments we thought people like Snow White and Cinderella would give their kids? The whole, ‘I’m not angry, I’m just disappointed’ speech?” Mal sported a little grin at Carlos’ snort. “It was like that. Before we left the Isle, when she gave me the ring, she said all this stuff to me. Stuff that doesn’t get said on the Isle. Stuff that makes you hopeful. And last night, the words I dreamt she said, the…disgust in her voice. The failure I felt. I almost wished she would have thrown something at me. Evil, that’s so fucked up.”

At this, Carlos rolled onto his side and waited for Mal to do the same. “You don’t have to justify what you say in regards to this. I can’t imagine how going through that would feel, even in a dream. And if you’re hurting because of it, Mal, I think it’s pretty valid.”

“I know it was just a ring. But it meant so much more to me. Like if her approval could be held, it was that. And I’ve lost it. I bet she knew I would. How are we supposed to get the wand if I’m too pathetic enough to keep track of a ring?”

“You’re not pathetic. You’re incredible. And we will get the wand. We’re all here, in it together, Mal. Rotten to the core, forever having each other’s backs, right? Don’t ever think you’re alone.” Carlos said, finishing with a peck to Mal’s nose.

A small smile crept up on Mal’s face at Carlos’ actions, and she scrunched her nose up. Dude, laying between them, thought another game was ensuing, and leaned his head up to lick at Mal’s nose. Laughter rose out of Mal whether she wanted it to or not, and she brought her hand down to scratch down the back of his head.

“This dog has got to be the best dressed animal in the entire kingdom. I mean, look at this little hood.” Mal said, reaching to pull up the tiny hood attached to Dude’s jacket over his head.

“Mal? What is it?” Carlos stared at Mal who looked like she’d both gone into shock and found a million dollars at the same time. She said nothing, but instead pulled out an amethyst tear drop shaped object, with two golden dragons that gleamed in the sunlight when she turned her hand to show Carlos.

“The ring? You found it! Why did Dude have it?”

“I have no clue!” Mal stammered, eyes still locked on the ring with reverent devotion. “The last time I even saw him before this morning was yesterday at - ”

“The field!” Carlos exclaimed, all the pieces puzzling together for him. “You were throwing the ball to him, feeding him treats. He kept jumping all over your hands trying to get at them. And then when Chad came over - ”

“It must have fallen off my thumb into his hood! You saved the ring, Dude! You and your little jacket that would have never existed if it weren’t for this miracle girl over here.” Mal rambled excitedly, promptly throwing herself off her bed and jumping right in between Jay and Evie, waking them up upon impact.

“ _Hades,_ Mal! Give a girl some warning.”

“Yeah what the fu…the ring!” Jay cut himself off when Mal brandished the ring in front of both of their faces, eyes bright with almost child-like excitement. 

“But how?”

“You didn’t actually set fire to Charming, did you? Because I’ll be pissed if you didn’t invite me.”

Mal laughed, really genuinely laughed in her happiness, and shook her head, explaining her discovery with Dude.

“Well holy shit.”

“I’m so happy for you, Mal. Now it’s back where it belongs, right with you.” Evie said softly, taking the ring and sliding it back onto Mal’s thumb. She placed a gentle kiss there, before shrieking in laughter as Mal leaned down, peppering kisses all over her face. When Mal finally let up, she reached out behind her, pulling Carlos onto the bed right on top of them all.

“That’s exactly what this one person bed was missing, a fourth person.” Jay said in jest, before Mal eyed him out.

“Don’t make me get the pillows back out.”

Jay held his hands up in surrender, before letting one of them come down to rest in Carlos’ curls. 

“Where did you two go last night?” Carlos asked, his eyes closed in peace at Jay’s ministrations. 

“We broke into Chad’s room.”

“Wow, thanks for the invite.”

“Babe, you were literally seconds away from turning Chad into a crisp yesterday afternoon. We couldn’t go searching for the ring and hold you back.” Evie said, grinning at Mal’s agreement.

“We clearly didn’t find the ring, but our room is now sporting a few new interesting items to mess around with.”

“It’ll be worth it just to see Chad’s indignation later on - but…but Fairy Godmother, I _know_ it was them! Those vile stinking evil villains and their no good ways!” Carlos said in a dramatic sporting of Chad’s voice, sending his friends into fits of laughter. “See, Mal? We got the ring back. And we can get the wand, too. Together.”

“Yeah, together.” Mal responded. She curled her fist protectively around her thumb once more, and let herself be curled in around the most important people in her life, whose acts of love towards her every day made her heart swell ever more than she thought a villain like her would be capable of.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope this long chapter can be a way of me apologising for such a delay in posting! I've been lucky enough to be travelling around Europe and time has flown so fast. I've been working on this chapter about two sentences at a time for the past 3 months but I'm pleased with how it turned out and i hope you all like it too!
> 
> I love writing Mal/Evie but I also love the friendship of the core four as well, and this chapter gave me a chance to explore some of their relationships more in depth. I'd love to hear what you all thought in the comments and as always, what you would like to see in future chapters!

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you all enjoy! I love these kids so much and their friendship/relationship/life long dedication to protecting each other makes me smile. Stay tuned for more adventures!


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